Abstract
Traced back to the Chernobyl Accident analysis (INSAG-1), the concept of safety culture is regarded as a central phenomenon influencing behaviors and values within high-risk organisations. Many studies have already been conducted on safety culture within nuclear installations. Describing a model designed to capture and assess safety culture observations, this paper intends to highlight the role of safety culture within the overall regulatory nuclear safety oversight, and to show how intangible cultural elements can lead to the identification of tangible safety issues.
Highlights
Safety culture is “a relatively stable, multidimensional, holistic construct shared by organisational members that supplies a frame of reference and which gives meaning to and/or is typically revealed in certain practices” [1]
We will provide a description of a model designed to capture and assess safety culture observations: We will discuss, what elements of culture should we focus on? How do we observe safety culture? Is safety culture quantifiable?
The INSAG-4 [18] states that “Safety culture is that assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals which establishes that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety organizations and individuals which establishes that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance”
Summary
Safety culture is “a relatively stable, multidimensional, holistic construct shared by (groups of) organisational members that supplies a frame of reference and which gives meaning to and/or is typically revealed in certain practices” [1]. Defined as a set of deeply rooted frames of reference, safety culture implies having a deep knowledge of field practices, operators’ way of thinking and basic assumptions that people act upon. In other words, these building blocks of safety culture are mainly intangible elements. The aim of this paper is, to shed light on a method used to capture and to assess safety culture from a nuclear regulatory body perspective, in this case in Belgium. We will provide a description of a model designed to capture and assess safety culture observations: We will discuss, what elements of culture should we focus on? We will focus on the potential impacts of safety culture assessment on safety oversight
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