Country-Specific Safety Culture Forum (CSSCF)
Ongoing
Country-Specific Safety Culture Forum (CSSCF) Canada participants take part in a role playing exercise, 7 September 2022

Overview

The event examines how nuclear safety culture is affected by the national cultural context of the country operating a nuclear facility. It brings together experts representing both the nuclear industry and the regulatory authority in the host country, with the objective of helping organisations maintain a healthy safety culture for the safe operations of nuclear installations and for effective regulatory activities.

Experience has shown that the manifestation of cultural aspects – such as communication styles, the importance of hierarchy or of individuality – in organisational behaviours are important to the development of a healthy safety culture. Realising the goal of an optimal safety culture requires an appreciation and consideration of national context.

This appreciation requires considerable introspection into such issues, and the NEA is pleased to provide a framework to facilitate these important considerations. 

Annual Workshops

The CSSCF convenes annually by a national workshop. 

  • The first workshop in a national context was held in Sweden in 2018. The purpose of this forum was to create awareness on potential safety culture challenges related to national context, with the objective of helping organisations maintain a healthy safety culture for safe operations of nuclear installations and for effective regulatory activities. The event brought together over 60 experts from the Swedish nuclear community and international observers from France, Finland, Japan, Korea, South Africa and the United States, representing the industry and regulatory organisations. 
  • The second workshop in a national context was held in Finland in 2019. This Country-Specific Safety Culture Forum helped to deepen the understanding of how the national context can influence nuclear safety culture and day-to-day operations. This event was organised in collaboration with the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) and the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK). 
  • The third national workshop was held in Ottawa, Canada in September 2022. Organised in collaboration with WANO and hosted by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), this two-day event enabled the broad range of stakeholders from the Canadian nuclear sector – the regulatory body, industry members representing the entire fuel cycle, medical sector representatives, and relevant academia members – to come together and address specific national characteristics and their impact on day-to-day operations and on safety culture as a whole. International experts from France, Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom participated as observers during the event. Over 80 participants attended and proactively engaged in the deliberations of the Forum, which were fruitful and delivered positive outcomes.
  • The fourth national workshop, CSSCF Japan, will be held in December 2023. Organised by the NEA in collaboration with WANO Tokyo Centre, CSSCF Japan has been planned in co-operation with the Japan Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) and the Federation of Electric Power Companies (FEPC).

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