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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Taking shape: Fusion energy ecosystems built with public-private partnerships
It’s possible to describe fusion in simple terms: heat and squeeze small atoms to get abundant clean energy. But there’s nothing simple about getting fusion ready for the grid.
Private developers, national lab and university researchers, suppliers, and end users working toward that goal are developing a range of complex technologies to reach fusion temperatures and pressures, confounded by science and technology gaps linked to plasma behavior; materials, diagnostics, and electronics for extreme environments; fuel cycle sustainability; and economics.
Elsa Gisquet, Sophie Beauquier, Emilie Poulain
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 9 | September 2021 | Pages 1410-1422
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1868891
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Many initiatives intended to improve safety in nuclear facilities have used the concept of “safety culture,” which focuses on human and organizational factors and emphasizes the importance of the perceptions, interpretations, and behaviors of the individuals and groups within organizations.
Particularly when it comes to risk management, it is widely believed that safety culture can be a used as a lever to strengthen a company’s overall structure and organization. But how is it possible to ensure that a new safety policy or organizational infrastructure really will promote safe and reliable operations without unforeseen and undesired cultural consequences? Once recommendations have been issued, how is it possible to assess the extent to which safety culture has (or has not) improved?
This paper argues that using what we call a “cultural analysis framework” can be a powerful way to identify and understand cultural elements that have an impact on reliability and safety within organizations. We will use a case study of the introduction of a safety management system in a nuclear facility to present this original approach. Because safety culture is a highly complex topic that can be challenging to address directly, our cultural analysis framework approaches a system at three levels, which, when explored together, can help to develop a comprehensive understanding of the cultural aspects of safety in an organization. First, at the macro level this approach examines the cultural background of a system and how it is integrated into an existing organizational culture. Second, at the meso level it looks at the collective aspects of a given system within an organization. Third, at the micro level it investigates collective and social life (modes of socialization, relationships, trust, practice sharing), as well as the symbolic and identity-related aspects of a system.
Based on the findings of our study, this paper concludes that a socio-comprehensive approach to safety can be an effective means to identify “reasonable” actions to be taken in any organization seeking to improve risk management.