Developing and Strengthening of Safety Culture at Ukrainian NPPs: Experience of NNEGC "Energoatom"

The moratorium, which was introduced in Ukraine after the Chernobyl accident, for the construction of new nuclear power plants at the legislative level, was broken in 2004, when two new power units at Khmelnytsky and Rivne nuclear power plant were put into operation. Currently, the nuclear energy sector plays the main role for electric power industry of Ukraine. Ukraine has the intention to finish the construction of two new units at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant. NAEC "Energoatom", as the operating organization, is aware that the attitude and behavior of top management as well as organizational features and activities have a significant impact on the safety culture. In the management statement dedicated to nuclear safety establishment, NAEC declares the absolute priority of safety over other objectives, in accordance with the principles of safety culture. Beginning with 2009, in scope with the IAEA recommendations, and based on the introduced in Ukraine in 2008 of the new revision of safety rules "General Safety of nuclear power plants", NAEC "Energoatom" activities for improving the safety culture are being carried out under special programs. There are three levels of management for this activities: • Council on safety culture (top management); • Working Group (representatives of all divisions of NAEC); • Committees on safety culture (all NPP sites). The programs are developed and updated every two years and the implementation of measures is provided on three levels of responsibility: • Technical policy for the safety; • responsibility and leadership obligations; • personal responsibility and duties of every employee. The main achievement of these programs has been to define and establish the strategy and a set of permanent measures which are aimed at improving the safety culture. On the basis of corporate programs the plants developed the programs of concrete actions aimed at the establishment and development of a safety culture, including: • Self evaluation of safety culture; • Questioning the staff; • Independent audits of safety culture. NAEC "Energoatom" seeks to take into account international experience, and to participate in conferences (such as this one), seminars and workshops held under the auspices of the IAEA, as well as to follow the guidelines and standards of the IAEA in the organization of activities to improve the safety culture. Other sources of international experience in this field are the EU-funded projects of "soft" assistance and guidance of other authorised international nuclear industry organizations such as WANO. In this regard, it should be mentioned WANO guidance document GL 2002-02 "Principles of effective personnel organization" that identifies five fundamental principles relating to human factors, and important for the development of a sustainable safety culture in the organization: • Even the best experts make mistakes; • A situation fraught with errors is predictable, manageable and preventable; • Human behavior is determined by organizational processes and values; • Highest efficiency operation is achieved through the promotion and support; • Violations can be avoided by understanding the causes of errors and implementing lessons learned. Within the framework of the international programs of EC "soft" aid in recent years, the projects that contribute to the development of a safety culture in the NAEC "Energoatom" have been either carried out or are ongoing. These projects include the solution of certain problems (for example, in the area of human factor—the task of "no punishment for error" approach establishment), as well as more common tasks of improving overall safety culture, such as: • Implementation of programs to inform senior staff and management, including the essential features needed to create a strong culture of safety; creating conditions for the improvement of the organizational and managerial impact on the safety of nuclear power plants and the development of a deep understanding of the importance of safety approach and the practical realisation of the principles of safety culture in production activities; • Creating an atmosphere of fruitful cooperation between management and staff, the improvement of collective action and of the behavior, developing a positive safety culture; Currently NAEC "Energoatom" is making efforts to improve the effectiveness of the implementation of these projects; to analyse the emerging issues in the implementation of project both at the pilot nuclear power plant and during its subsequent extension to the rest of the NPP; to conduct generalization, systematisation and integration of the results of these projects into a single management system of safety culture for NAEC "Energatom". Realizing the importance of safety culture to achieve the goals of safety, as well as performing for many years a whole range of measures to improve safety and to improve the safety culture, NNEGC "Energoatom" considers the need for constant attention to safety culture at all organizational levels to be the key to success, and the main driving mechanism of progress and development in this area—wide awareness of international experience and achievements in improving the safety culture, their integration and implementation in your organization. (author)