Accountability Feedback Assessments for Improving Efficiency of Nuclear Regulatory Institutions

The Fukushima-Daiichi Disaster demonstrated the need of assessing and strengthening institutions involved in nuclear safety, including the accountability of nuclear regulators. There are a few problems hindering the path towards a greater understanding of systems of accountability, the ensemble of mechanisms holding to account the nuclear regulator on behalf of the public. There is no consensus on what it should deliver and no systematic method of assessment exists. This poster proposes a definition of an effective accountability system and a method of assessment of institutions based on defence in depth concepts and inspired from risk-assessment techniques used in the nuclear industry. Finally it presents a simple Monte-Carlo simulation that illustrates the inner workings of the method of assessment and shows the kind of results it will be able to supply. (author)