A study of decision-making on enhancing the effectiveness of plant life management for nuclear power plants

Incentives for decision-makers to continue investing resources in the safety improvement of the existing nuclear fleet are studied. On the basis of a broad survey of studies related to decision-making, two approaches are selected: one is the seven-step process to identify the "red flag" that makes a decision-maker biased and the other is to have a risk management system outside the organization, the so-called "forum for deliberation". These were hypothetically applied to a case study on tsunami countermeasures; the results suggested that they were effective to a certain degree. These mechanisms are considered to be a booster when trying to maintain human resources related to safety improvement without reducing resources, even in a difficult business environment. The implementation of these approaches in consideration of the current organizational structure is discussed. (author)