Nuclear Safety Culture Assessm

Thomas C. Houghton

Director, Safety Focused Regulation

Nuclear Energy Institute

February 3, 2009
Nuclear Safety Culture Assessm

 NRC and industry dissatisfied with 95003 safety 

Assessment experience at Palo Verde

 NEI volunteered to develop an industry guideline 

party assessment

 Established a Nuclear Safety Culture Assessmen

develop guideline that could be used for self, indeand third party assessments

 All sites perform self assessments on a biennial b

(INPO SOER 02-4)

– Some use contractors for surveys/assessments

– No industry-wide consistency– USA has a methodology it has used successfully for five 
Creating Guideline Building on USA N

Safety Culture Assessment (NSCA) Pr

 USA (Utility Services Alliance) utilities (15 

companies, 27 reactors)

 Companies outside the Alliance:

– Progress Energy, Constellation, Enterg

– Tecnatom (Spain) (7 reactors)– Ontario Power Generation– Oak Ridge National Laboratory
The USA NSCA Process

 Structured on INPO’s Principles and Attributes f

Strong Nuclear Safety Culture; results are providthat context

 Safety Culture:

An organization’s values and behaviors – modeleaders and internalized by its members that sleaders and internalized by its members

– that s

make nuclear safety an overriding priority.

 Process includes:

– Pre-assessment automated survey and data revi– Assessment of leadership and worker attitudes, o

and perceptions through interviews and behaviorobservations
Peer-assisted Self Assessment Pr

 Team Leader, 4 evaluators and Executive Spons

provided by alliance, similar number of host peer

 All interviews and observations done in pairs Pre-evaluation survey and data review Full week evaluation with Frida

y exit

 Comprehensive manual to manage data Can be scaled up for “independent” or “third part

assessment 

– More team members – More independence– Additional focus areas
NSCA Assessment Process

DATA REVIEW 

&SURVEY INTERVIEWS

OBSERVATIONS

(Corroborated By)

Nuclear Safety Culture Assessment

Final Report
What the Process Looks Li

Pre-Work Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday 

Developed a Pre-Survey to given 2

Weeks prior to assessment

For Example: Expectations and standards are well defined and effectively 

communicated.

1. _____Workers understand and demonstrate buy-in to expectations and standards.2. _____Procedures, policies and other documents that define expectations and standards are 

clearly written.

3. _____Expectations and standards are realistic for implementation.4. _____Expectations and standards are consistent with best industry practices.5. _____Expectations and standards are consistent with and support business plan goals and 

objectives.

6. _____Departments and workgroups use progressively detailed expectations and standards to 

link worker performance to higher tier goals. 

Strongly Disagree Somewhat Neutral Somewhat Agree Strongly Don’tDisagree Disagree Agree Agree Know

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0

Supervisory

Interviews

Individual Contributor 

Interviews

© 2008 Institute of Nuclear Power Operations – Unlimited Distribution

7. _____Self-assessments are used effectively to identify shortcomings (such as conflicts or 

lack of clarity) in defined expectations and standards.

8. _____Operating experience is used as input when defining expectations and standards.

Pre-Survey & 

Discussion Multiple Meeting Observations Final

Consolidation 

Discussion

Recommendatio

Training &

Schedule

Field Observations

Travel to Site

Plant Records -

CAP

Bus. Plan

Indicators

Prior 

Assessments,

Prior NSCA

Focus Areas

Equipment 

History etc.

Data Consolidation Meetings
Typical Coverage Pattern 

 Start with individual contributors before moving 

supervision

 Generally have around 60 interviews of individua

small 

groups

 Typically attend 10 Typically attend 10-15 different types of meeting

15 different types of meeting

 Typically make 10 Typically make 10-12 formal Field Observations 12 formal Field Observations Provides varying levels of coverage for 250 Provides varying levels of coverage for 250-300 

employees on site

 Typically over 1000 data points go into profile
Assessment Results

 Presented at exit meeting followed by writt

report

 Can include other areas of Site VP interes Includes both descriptive and graphic resu Strengths, weaknesses, recommendations Follow-up of weaknesses from previous 

assessment 

 Entered in the CAP and/or improvement p Wide communication of results
Typical Summary Graphic of Assess

Additional graphs exist to show individual attributes of each 
NSCA is Being Upgraded

 Modified to reflect three levels of 

assessment (self, independent and thiparty)

 Upgrade survey to distinguish between Upgrade survey to distinguish between

departments and levels in the organiza

 Conduct validation of survey Reviewed against revised 95003
In conclusion

 Industry is completing a guideline and ma

for conducting third party, independent anassessments

 USA is conducting about a dozen assess

this year 

 Industry will provide the guideline and ma

to NRC and invite NRC to observe 

 After industry training/workshops, industr

implement the assessment approach