Leadership actions to improve nuclear safety culture

The challenge many leaders face is how to effectively implement and then utilize the results of safety culture surveys. Bruce Power has recently successfully implemented changes to the safety culture survey process including how corrective actions were identified and implemented. The actions taken in response to the latest survey have proven effective with a step change in performance noted. In the safety culture assessment completed in 2013, Bruce Power conducted an assessment across the entire organization as part of the corporate assessment. The report generated from the analysis of the data provided the character of the nuclear safety culture and trends at the facilities and across the organization. A thorough review of the results was conducted with a cross-departmental team that included individual contributors, supervisors and managers with an executive committee chaired by the Chief Nuclear Officer providing provided oversight. From this process, Bruce Power established a number of corrective actions to address the three main focus areas identified as part of the safety culture assessment: improve equipment health, improve corrective action program, and improve first-line manager communication. A key success factor in addressing these focus areas was the establishment of sponsorship and site-wide initiatives to respond to each of the three focus areas. Another success factor was the decision to focus on the top three issues. Oversight on the progress against these actions was also undertaken at the Corporate Corrective Action Review Board each quarter, whose purpose is to provide senior management review and oversight of significant corporate level events. Such oversight ensured that the causes of these events had been identified and that timely and effective corrective actions had been put in place. This integrated framework, which was developed using the experience of external expertise and international industry standards, provides a valid characterization of the nuclear safety culture and drives continual improvement. In this way, Bruce Power maintains a healthy nuclear safety culture. (author)