[Music]
We must now consider how safety culture will
contribute to achieving our safety objectives.
How do we ensure nuclear safety?
When we talk about safety functions, we mainly think of
their implementation in related safety equipment.
So, safety primarily depends on the reliability
of this equipment. This means that the probability
of an equipment failure must be as low as possible.
However, if safety equipment does
fail, other equipment should be available
to mitigate the consequences of an accident.
But safety depends significantly on the organization
of the people in the industry: including how
safety equipment is designed and built, as
well as how it is used. This can be regulated
through a safety management system.
Such a system is designed to manage safety elements
in the workplace. The practical outcome of
such a system is normally a set of procedures and
regulations that directly specify safety-related
work activities. Also important is to what degree
previous operating experience is considered
while designing, building and operating safety equipment.
But industrial organizations and
companies are composed of people. So it's
the actions of people that are decisive for
accomplishing safety. The actions of people
depend on how they are prepared for their
safety-related activities, especially how
people have been trained. The most important
attitude of people is their questioning attitude.
Do they take everything for granted, or do
they regularly question their behaviour and
those of others, the procedures they must
follow, and the equipment and tools that they're using?
All this is present in the culture
of people that are working collectively in an organization.
Their culture must be a safety culture!
So, we'll now focus on safety culture
and its main elements. Now what is safety culture?
Here you see a definition made by
the International Atomic Energy Agency, the
organization that was founded by the United
Nations to support the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
This definition states that when we
talk about safety culture, we must talk about
the characteristics and attitudes of organizations
and of the individuals in these organizations.
These characteristics and attitudes must
always prioritize safety issues according
to their significance. But of what does this
assembly of characteristics comprise?
It includes attitudes (such as a questioning attitude),
motivation (are you motivated to put safety
issues as top priority?), values, beliefs and behaviour.
And which organizations and individuals are involved?
Here we think of your company,
your manager, and finally we are thinking of you!
ITER is currently being built at Cadarache,
in the south of France. During the construction
the necessary safety equipment is being installed.
The designers, manufacturers and constructors
have already been involved in safety culture
-in their daily work, in their company and as individuals-
Even though the results of their first work could be seen as only paper,
their design activities laid the basis for the
effective implementation of safety functions later.
For that reason a sound safety culture
must exist in the companies involved.
The same is true for the following life cycle
activities of manufacturing, construction,
assembly and commissioning. And then during
the operational phase, the operator at least
is also responsible for implementing the safety culture.
But now it's you who's involved
and responsible for implementing safety culture
during your design, manufacturing and construction activities!
All these life cycle activities
are regulated and supervised principally
through three different layers: international
organizations that mostly provide recommendations
and develop standards, the state that will
implement them as national law together with
related procedures, and finally safety authorities
that supervise the specific implementations
and approve them. In the case of ITER, the
most prominent international organisation
is the International Atomic Energy Agency,
the state is the French Republic whose laws
and regulations must be observed,
and finally, the safety authority is the Autorité de Sûreté
Nucléaire. In the past, the ASN mainly dealt
with regulating French nuclear power plants,
but now they are also involved in licensing ITER.
And they are making sure that nuclear
safety culture is properly implemented in the
ITER project, which means in all companies
that are involved in the project!
Now, which characteristics and attitudes are required
in a safety culture to achieve the safety objectives?
First, let's start with organizations.
Their policy, published internally as well
as externally, must clearly state that safety
is their top priority! But policy isn't everything.
The leaders of organizations, such as managers
at all levels, must commit to this policy,
and most importantly, demonstrate it in their
managerial activities. Next, based on the
organizational policy, organizational processes
and related procedures must document this and
provide detailed practical support. Organizations
are made up of the individuals that are working in them.
Whether safety objectives will be
achieved clearly depends on the motivation and
commitment of everyone. So every individual
must bear a personal responsibility for accomplishing
safety objectives. This also means that existing
conditions and activities must be regularly challenged:
do they still contribute to achieving
safety objectives? Finally, communication
between individuals is important, in particular
whether it is focused on safety-related issues.
Before we proceed, you may like to answer
some short questions, to check your understanding
of what we have learned. Thank you for your attention.
[Music]