2017 Volume 16 Issue 3 Pages 119-138
The enhancement of safety culture is an issue for both plant operators and regulators working in fields related to the safety management of nuclear power plants. Plant operators have been collecting safety culture data through a broad range of tools and methods such as observations, interviews and other surveys. However, many issues remain regarding the effectiveness of safety culture activity. A new regulatory authority was established in 2012 after the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident to enforce nuclear safety regulations but its activity is still weak in terms of monitoring the performance of plant operators’ safety culture. In order to promote and strengthen safety culture, plant operators need to collect detailed event information, even when events do not directly affect plant safety, and accumulate information related to human, organizational and technical factors through dialogue among the parties responsible for coping with events. Both operators and regulators should all be working in the same direction to assess information that will help their periodic reviews, and the involvement of local government is a key to enhancing their safety culture.
