Nuclear Operators Must Have ‘Open’ Organisational Structure
Written by NucNet
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
For nuclear operators to maintain a strong safety culture they must focus on cultivating an “open, collaborative organisational culture” where people feel comfortable raising questions and presenting dissenting views, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chairman Gregory Jaczko told a meeting yesterday.
He told the Health Physics Society in Utah that no matter how strong the NRC’s rules, oversight, and enforcement programmes are, “the simple fact of the matter is that the NRC can’t be everywhere and it can’t inspect everything”.
He said the licensee will always retain the primary day-to-day responsibility for ensuring that their facility or plant operates safely.
Mr Jaczko said the nuclear industry is now over 60 years old and operators have decades of experience in operating their facilities and handling nuclear materials. But he said experience also creates the potential for complacency that can compromise safety, and that is something that the nuclear industry must work hard to resist.
In recent years, the NRC has made substantial progress on the safety issue in a number of ways including the development of a new safety culture policy statement that will help clarify the NRC’s expectations in this area. The draft statement emphasises that safety culture is no less important for materials licensees than for reactor licensees, and security is an important component of safety culture.
The final version of the statement is expected to return to the NRC for its approval by spring 2011.
