Sharing human and organizational factors lessons learned from the implementation of post-Fukushima actions

Following the accident at Fukushima Dai-ichi, regulatory authorities promulgated various requirements, guidelines, and lessons learned for the purpose of ensuring that plant operators have adequate capabilities for response to and mitigation of extreme external events (e.g., beyond-design-basis events) and severe accidents. Many nuclear facility operators have since taken action to assess and enhance these mitigation capabilities and are beginning to validate manual mitigation actions, and conduct training, drills, and exercises to test and demonstrate the effectiveness of these efforts. Given that extreme external events and severe accidents occur at low frequency; these industry activities will be the nuclear industry's principal 'operating experience' and opportunity for learning about our ability to manage such events. As a result, this is an important period in that it offers the opportunity for the nuclear industry to identify and share lessons learned from the early implementation of these post-Fukushima actions. Seizing this opportunity, the Nuclear Energy Agency is engaging nuclear regulatory authorities and plant operating companies in an international collaboration to share the lessons they are learning during the early implementation phase of these post-Fukushima actions. Specifically, the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations, Working Group on Human and Organizational Factors is undertaking an effort to gather and disseminate the insights gained from these implementation activities that concern human and organizational performance under extreme conditions. The objective of this undertaking is to facilitate, and thereby accelerate, industry learning of best practices and identify areas requiring additional research and development. This presentation will provide an overview of the initiative including its methods, anticipated products, and current status. (author)