CNCAN2

Enhancement of CNCAN’s capability to assess the Safety Culture of its licensees

Purpose

Enhance CNCAN’s methodology and tools for assessment of Safety Culture at the pertinent levels within licensees’ organizations.

Background and justification

Regulatory inspections have traditionally been focused on nuclear safety aspects related to equipment and operational procedures, and fewer resources have been allocated to the assessment of so called “soft issues” from which safety culture is part.

Some safety culture aspects have so far been assessed as part of the quality management systems’ audits performed by CNCAN, but no comprehensive assessments of the level of safety culture in the licensees’ organizations were performed. At the fourth review meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety held in April 2008, the Raporteur’s report for Romania recommended the “Development of dedicated diagnostic tools in order to improve the effectiveness of regulatory assessment of safety culture”.

The IAEA Safety Guide GS-G-1.3, “Regulatory Inspection of Nuclear Facilities and Enforcement by the Regulatory Body”, recommends:“Regulatory inspection is performed to make an independent check on the operator and the state of the facility, and to provide a high level of confidence that operators are in compliance with the safety objectives prescribed or approved by the regulatory body. This should be achieved by confirming that: […] The operator has a strong and effective management, good safety culture and self-assessment systems for ensuring the safety of the facility and the protection of workers, the public and the environment.”
 

Results

The programme will achieve its purpose described here above and in particular will deliver:

1. A SCART mission report identifying the current level of safety culture at Cernavoda NPP, to be used as a baseline for measuring future improvements and advising on further actions to be taken in this regard.
2. Methodology and tools for regulatory assessment of the safety culture of the licensees.
3. Trained CNCAN staff in assessment of safety culture.
4. Measurement of progress made by means of a pilot assessment using the developed methodology and tools.
5. Knowledge and insights gained during the process of development of the regulatory methodology for assessment of safety culture disseminated to organizations activating in the nuclear field in Romania and abroad.