Improvements of the regulatory framework for nuclear installations in the areas of human and organizational factors and safety culture

The paper presents the development of regulatory requirements in the area of human and organizational factors taking account of the lessons learned from major accidents in the nuclear industry and in particular of the factors that contributed to the Fukushima Daiichi accident and the improvement of the regulatory oversight of nuclear safety culture. New requirements have been elaborated by the National Commission for Nuclear Activities Control (CNCAN) on the nuclear safety policy of licensees for nuclear installations, on independent nuclear safety oversight, on safety conscious work environment and on the assessment of nuclear safety culture. The regulatory process for the oversight of nuclear safety culture within licensees' organizations operating nuclear installations is presented, together its associated procedure and guidelines. CNCAN uses the 37 IAEA attributes for a strong safety culture, grouped into 5 areas corresponding to safety culture characteristics, as the basis for its regulatory guidelines providing support to the reviewers and inspectors, in their routine activities, for recognizing and gathering information relevant to safety culture. Starting with July 2014, Romania has a National Strategy for Nuclear Safety and Security, which includes strategic objectives, associated directions for action and concrete actions for promoting nuclear safety culture in all the organizations in the nuclear sector. The progress with the implementation of this strategy with regard to nuclear safety culture is described in the paper. CNCAN started to define its own organizational culture model and identifying the elements that promote and support safety culture. The experience with the development and improvement of the regulatory framework, regulatory oversight process and safety culture in the regulatory organization are all described in the paper and may prove useful for regulatory authorities of other countries. (author)