Safety indicators: Initiators for learning and action

While the Sydkraft Safety Council promotes proactive safety work at the Barsebaeck and Oskarshamn nuclear power plants, it also monitors and evaluates the safety management work of the plants at the corporate level. To aid it in this work, the Council has chosen a limited number of safety performance indicators. The Council requirements on the indicators have been that they should assist in identifying precursors and the tendencies of parameters to deviate before they develop and seriously affect safety in the long term. To follow indicator trends is considered more valuable by the Council than to study absolute indicator values. The Safety Council takes the view that safety indicators will stimulate plant organizations to continuously improve their safety related work. Experience has shown that improvements have taken place in areas that are of fundamental importance for efficient safety work. Finally, the use of safety indicators at the Safety Council level has lead to an increased and more profitable use of safety indicators at different levels in the plant organizations. (author)