Nuclear Safety Culture
Nawah prioritizes safety above all else, and is founded upon a nuclear safety culture. This culture is based on core values and behaviors to ensure the protection of the public, the environment and Nawah’s employees, and stems from our commitment to always place the safety of individuals first.
The Nuclear Safety Culture is the overarching organizational culture embedded across all of Nawah’s teams and everything they do. These values are taught to all new Nawah team members as correct methods of perception and behaviour.
Organizational culture is the shared basic assumptions that are developed in an organization as it learns and copes with problems. The basic assumptions that have worked well enough to be considered valid are taught to new members of the organization as the correct way to perceive, think, act, and feel. For the commercial nuclear power industry, nuclear safety remains the overriding priority. Although the same traits apply to reactor safety, radiological safety, industrial safety, environmental safety and security, nuclear safety is the first value adopted in Nawah Energy Company, and is never abandoned. Nuclear safety is the employees’ collective responsibility.
Nuclear safety is the collective responsibility of each team member and applies to all employees, from the board of directors to the individual contributors. No one in the organization is exempt from the obligation to ensure safety first. Here are the 10 Traits which Nawah follows in order to achieve its Healthy Nuclear Safety Culture:
TRAITS OF A HEALTHY NUCLEAR SAFETY CULTURE:
1- PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY
All individuals take personal responsibility for safety.
Responsibility and authority for nuclear safety are well defined and clearly understood. Reporting relationships, positional authority, and team responsibilities emphasize the overriding importance of nuclear safety.
2- QUESTIONING ATTITUDE
Individuals avoid complacency and continuously challenge existing conditions and activities in order to identify discrepancies that might result in error or inappropriate action.
All employees are watchful for assumptions, anomalies, values, conditions, or activities that can have an undesirable effect on plant safety.
3- EFFECTIVE SAFETY COMMUNICATION
Communications maintain a focus on safety.
Safety communication is broad and includes plant-level communication, job-related communication, worker-level communication, equipment labeling, operating experience, and documentation. Leaders use formal and informal communication to convey the importance of safety. The flow of information up the organization is considered to be as important as the flow of information down the organization.
4- LEADERSHIP SAFETY VALUES AND ACTIONS
Leaders demonstrate a commitment to safety in their decisions and behaviors.
Executive and senior managers are the leading advocates of nuclear safety and demonstrate their commitment both in word and action. The nuclear safety message is communicated frequently and consistently, occasionally as a stand-alone theme. Leaders throughout the nuclear organization set an example for safety. Corporate policies emphasize the overriding importance of nuclear safety.
5- DECISION MAKING
Decisions that support or affect nuclear safety are systematic, rigorous, and thorough.
Operators are vested with the authority and understand the expectation, when faced with unexpected or uncertain conditions, to place the plant in a safe condition. Senior leaders support and reinforce conservative decisions.
6- RESPECTFUL WORK ENVIRONMENT
Trust and respect permeate the organization.
A high level of trust is established in the organization, fostered, in part, through timely and accurate communication. Differing professional opinions are encouraged, discussed, and resolved in a timely manner. Employees are informed of steps taken in response to their concerns.
7- CONTINUOUS LEARNING
Opportunities to learn about ways to ensure safety are sought out and implemented.
Operating experience is highly valued, and the capacity to learn from experience is well developed. Training, self-assessments, and benchmarking are used to stimulate learning and improve performance. Nuclear safety is kept under constant scrutiny through a variety of monitoring techniques, some of which provide an independent “fresh look.”
8- PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION AND RESOLUTION
Issues potentially impacting safety are promptly identified, fully evaluated, and promptly addressed and corrected commensurate with their significance.
Identification and resolution of a broad spectrum of problems, including organizational issues, are used to strengthen safety and improve performance.
9- ENVIRONMENT FOR RAISING CONCERNS
A safety-conscious work environment (SCWE) is maintained where personnel feel free to raise safety concerns without fear of retaliation, intimidation, harassment, or discrimination.
The station creates, maintains, and evaluates policies and processes that allow personnel to raise concerns freely.
10- WORK PROCESSES
The process of planning and controlling work activities is implemented so that safety is maintained.
Work management is a deliberate process in which work is identified, selected, planned, scheduled, executed, closed, and critiqued. The entire organization is involved in and fully supports the process.
To underpin its safety culture, Nawah’s leaders:
- Reinforce the safety culture at every opportunity, ensuring that our healthy safety culture is not taken for granted.
- Measure the level of compliance frequently against our healthy safety culture, with a focus on trends rather than absolute values.
- Communicate what constitutes a healthy safety culture and ensuring everyone understands his/her role in promoting this culture.
- Recognize that a nuclear safety culture is moving along a continuum of increasing maturity. Leaders must therefore discuss safety culture within the organization as well as with outside groups, such as regulatory agencies.
Additionally, to ensure full compliance with its Nuclear Safety Culture, Nawah implements these safety-related practices:
- Assessment & Measurement:
- Biennial Nuclear Safety Culture Assessment
- Quarterly Nuclear Safety Culture Steering Committees
- Self-Assessments
- Benchmarking
-Peer Reviews - Workshops:
- Nuclear Safety Culture Onboarding Sessions
- In-depth Nuclear Safety Culture Workshops
- Workshops on Nuclear Professionalism - Leader Role Modelling:
- Nawah Leadership Team Majlis Sessions
- Formal Leadership Development Programs - Communication & Engagement:
- Ongoing nuclear safety culture events
- Annual Nuclear Safety Culture Fair