Regulatory Oversight of Nuclear Safety Culture and the Validation Study on the Oversight Model Components

Objective: This paper introduces the regulatory oversight approaches and issues to consider in the course of safety culture oversight model development in the nuclear field. Common understanding on regulatory oversight and present practices of international communities are briefly reviewed. The nuclear safety culture oversight model of Korea is explained focusing on the development of safety culture definition and components, and their basic meanings. Oversight components are identified to represent the multiple human and organizational elements which can affect and reinforce elements of defense in depth system for nuclear safety. Result of validation study on safety culture components is briefly introduced too. Finally, the results of the application of the model are presented to show its effectiveness and feasibility. Background: The oversight of nuclear licensee's safety culture has been an important regulatory issue in the international community of nuclear safety regulation. Concurrent with the significant events that started to occur in the early 2000s and that had implications about safety culture of the operating organizations, it has been natural for regulators to pay attention to appropriate methods and even philosophy for intervening the licensee's safety culture. Although safety culture has been emphasized for last 30 years as a prerequisite to ensure high level of nuclear safety, it has not been of regulatory scope and has a unique dilemma between external oversight and the voluntary nature of culture. Safety culture oversight is a new regulatory challenge that needs to be approached taking into consideration of the uncontrollable aspects of cultural changes and the impacts on licensee's safety culture. Although researchers and industrial practitioners still struggle with measuring, evaluating, managing and changing safety culture, it was recognized that efforts to observe and influence licensees' safety culture should not be delayed. Method: Safety culture components which regulatory oversight will have to focus on are developed by benchmarking the concept of physical barriers and introducing the defense in depth philosophy into organizational system. Therefore, this paper begins with review of international regulatory oversight approaches and issues associated with the regulatory oversight of safety culture, followed by the development of oversight model. The validity of the model was verified by statistical analysis with the survey result obtained from survey administration to NPP employees in Korea. The developed safety culture oversight model and components were used in the "safety culture inspection" activities of the Korean regulatory body. Results: The developed safety culture model was confirmed to be valid in terms of content, construct and criterion validity. And the actual applicability in the nuclear operating organization was verified after series of pilot "safety culture inspection" activities. Conclusion: The application of the nuclear safety culture oversight model to operating organization of NPPs showed promising results for regulatory tools required for the organizations to improve their safety culture. Application: The developed oversight model and components might be used in the inspection activities and regulatory oversight of NPP operating organization's safety culture.