ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE SAFETY CULTURE IN VIETNAM

Transcription

1 ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE SAFETY CULTURE IN VIETNAM LE Quang Hiep, Vietnam Agency for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Hanoi, Vietnam Abstract Vietnam decided to construct and put into operation the first nuclear power plant in In development of the national infrastructure for nuclear safety for nuclear power projects, Vietnam aware that developing and maintaining a culture of safety in organizations and individuals involved in all phase of the project is an essential element. Although as a nation do not have experience in building and operating nuclear power plants, Vietnam has the advantage that can share and learn from other developed nuclear industry countries. For safety cultủe, Vietnam can also study the experience of other countries to determine how to build, develop and maintain safety culture in the nuclear industry in a reasonable way. This presentation introduces activities to promote safety culture in Vietnam with the following contents: Understanding Safety Culture, assessment of national culture effects to the safety culture, challenges for development of safety culture in organizations related to nuclear power program and activities which have been taken for promotion of safety culture in the implementation of the NPP project. With the distinctive features of the national cultural characterized by eastern culture and the nature of an agricultural country, Vietnam has many challenges in the formation and development of a comprehensive safety culture as other western countries. From international experience, Vietnam selected to build and develop safety culture in the nuclear industry towards the most basic goals that are commitment of strict compliance with the safety requirements, enhancement of awareness of safety cultural in organizations and persons related to safety in nuclear power project, gradual formation of safety culture in organizations and individuals involved in nuclear power projects, consensus in considering nuclear safety as the responsibility, ethics and genuine value of each individual, each organization. I. Safety culture Understanding of a culture of safety The final destination of a culture of safety is the safety concern at the highest level. Safety culture is developed step by step that the most primitive level is compliance with the safety regulations and the highest level is when an organization, individual consider safety as ethics, genuine values and philosophy of life. To have a clear mandate in the development of safety culture it can be defined in a simple way as follows: Safety culture in simple way is understood as a positive attitude of an organization and each person in this organization on responsibilities and morality for safety and their expression of that attitude by the actual behavior and actions toward objectives of highest safety. This definition specifies that safety culture consist of awareness process and process of turning that awareness into actual behaviors and actions. Requirements of the safety culture firstly is the compliance with rules (responsibility) and the higher is the consideration of responsibilities for the safety as ethics, genuine value. Thus, in order to form and develop a culture of safety in a facility or of an individual, the first important issue is to make all individuals and organizations to understand the nature of the safety culture and how to get a culture of safety.

2 Safety culture is the view of organizations and individuals so many factors can affect the formation of a culture of safety such as: - Traditional culture of the nation, - Structure of organization, - Specific characters of each organization and each person, - Origins of each person, - The cultural and economic context of the country. II. The factors affecting the formation and development of safety culture II.1. Influence from the country's traditional culture Traditional culture of the country was formed a long time and become a way of life, behavior ingrained in each person that is very difficult to change. Vietnam is influenced by Eastern culture that is: - Based in personal emotion in handling the work. Avoid hurting or insulting others when handling work. - Living and working in a hierarchical style, it means that young people must obey older and subordinates must always comply with their superiors. This culture hindered the promotion of innovation, creativity and judgment in the management of safety. - sloppy and arbitrary behavior and weak labor discipline derived less from the way of agricultural production. These cultural characteristics have great influence on the formation of a culture of safety in nuclear facilities. It slows down the formation of the industrial style, labor discipline, democracy and the autonomy and creativity of each individual for safety II.2. The impact of the existing behavior, lifestyle The bad behavior and lifestyles that exist and prevalent in society will have a negative impact on the process of formation and development of safety culture. Habit of intentionally violating the provisions of the law in daily life will form the habit of violating the safety requirements during work. Take the example of the enforcement of traffic laws, the deliberate violation of traffic laws such as over speeding or not wearing a helmet when riding a motorcycle... is a very common phenomenon in Vietnamese traffic. Psychology disregarding of the law in daily activities will affect the behavior of individuals to build a culture of safety. Vietnam is a country moving from centralized economy to a market economy recently, in the course of the current economic development, psychology chasing profits is affecting the safety criteria and safety culture. Many acts of evasion of responsibility in environmental protection or responsibilities of safety discovered recently in Vietnam have shown a worrying situation for culture of safety and culture of environmental protection. Based on personal relationships to avoid the responsibility for ensuring safety is a factor that affects the formation of a culture of safety. 2

3 II.3. The challenges for developing safety culture in the management of the nuclear power project Vietnam is a newcomer country so will faces to many challenges in the formation and development of safety culture: - No experience with nuclear power in terms of scientific knowledge as well as management experience. - Standards of safety culture has not really been fully aware. - Views on safety culture is still low mainly to comply with the regulations and do not have a positive view on the nature of the safety culture - National cultural characteristics create limitations in the development of safety culture in the true sense - Lifestyle and habits of the individual, as well as less positive view of the organization is the major barrier to developing safety culture - Safety culture is heavily influenced by economic pressures of economic development. - The development of privatization along with the pressure to reduce costs is a factor hindering the development of the safety culture III. The challenge for developing safety culture in Regulatory Bodies - The concept of safety culture in regulatory bodies are not defined explicitly: People s understanding of the concept of safety culture and approach to form and develop a culture of safety within the organization is very less. - A point of view that safety cultural is a matter of operating organizations not a matter of concern of RB is still a point of view of many people. - There are no policies related to building and developing a culture of safety in the management bodies. IV. The challenge for developing safety culture in the operating organizations - The operating organization has the advantage of experience in developing a culture of safety in the industry, but the safety culture existing in the general industries only at the level of compliance with the regulations will hamper the development of safety culture in accordance with the current philosophy and requirements for the nuclear industry. - Pressure on time schedule of the project, the economics of the project which lead to the compromise on the safety criteria will be factors that impact on the safety culture of the organization. - Individual's perception of morality and responsibility for ensuring safety from management to shop floor workers is influenced from the point of view, traditional culture, current working style. V. Weaknesses in the existing safety culture in the industrial facilities in Vietnam derived from the results of some research and inspection The results of some studies and safety inspection in industrial facilities in Vietnam have shown weaknesses in safety culture: 3

4 - Weak commitment of the leaders to safety - Lack of a systematic approach to develop safety culture - The safety procedures are not fully implemented - Dealing with RBs rather than voluntary implementation of safety objectives - Employees lack of self-consciousness in compliance with safety regulations - The safety problem is not analysed in-depth in order to draw lessons - Safety concerns are not timely addressed - Attentions are paid only to technical aspects and very less on the human factor - Lack of self-assessment process on safety culture VI. Activities to promote safety culture in nuclear power project in Vietnam VI.1. General perspective - Embarking the nuclear power program, Vietnam has learned a lot of experience from other countries to clearly realize that safety are the most concerned matter when a decision for development of NPP is made. - Development of safety culture in all relevant organizations and individuals is an important task in the nuclear power development program in Vietnam. VI.2. The guiding principles for the development of safety culture in Vietnam - The leader's commitment to safety through policy and action programs - Responsibilities related to safety clearly defined - Sharing information and giving respect for comments related to safety in the steps of decision making as well as doing the job - Enhancement of training to raise awareness and responsibilities related to safety - Safety be checked, monitored and fair payoff to gradually improve the safety culture within the organization and the individuals involved - The coordination of stakeholders to ensure the safety criteria to be executed VI.3. Practical activities for promotion of safety culture in nuclear power project in Vietnam Some activities in relation to safety have been implemented in Vietnam: - A national policy statement for safety has been made: National point of view of safety for practices using of nuclear radiation in general and nuclear power in particular has been specified in the Atomic Energy Law: All activities must ensure the safety of people and the environment. Safety requirements for nuclear power is confirmed in national policies through National Assembly: the highest level of safety for nuclear power projects should be ensured, including selection of proven technology, development of national infrastructure to ensure nuclear safety management at the highest level 4

5 - Facilities are also required to have policy statement on safety: Operating organization is required for a written safety policy statement to affirm their commitment to safety in all phases of the project - Responsibilities and requirements for safety are defined in the law and regulations: The licensees are stipulated by the Law to have highest responsibility for the safety of their operations. Criteria and safety requirements taking into account references of the world's best practices are clearly specified in the law and regulations. - A mechanism to ensure that the views and opinions of all stakeholders are taken into account has been developed. The decision-making process on nuclear power development policy, site approval, technology choices are now made through the process in which the opinion of management agencies, scientists, society is addressed carefully - A multiple levels system of control by investors, State management agencies for each safety-related aspects, National Nuclear Safety Council, Independent watchdog of government is applied for verification of safety. - Measures for implementation of policy Establishment of the National Steering Committee for implementation of nuclear power projects chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister Establishment the subcommittees responsible for safety, nuclear security with members of the policy-makers, scientists, nuclear experts to help the Steering Committee for implementation of activities related to safety, security of nuclear power projects. Establishment of information and communication subcommittee responsible for receiving, sharing and providing information related to the nuclear power program Establishment of the National Steering Committee on the training of human resources chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister. The Committee is responsible for ensuring human resource for management, operations, technical support. Vietnam has approved a budget of 150 million USD for the plan of human resources development to Activities of regulatory body aimed to objectives of safety culture: Conducting some research projects on safety culture: Clarification of safety culture concept and the criteria for the formation and development of safety culture in Vietnam; Assessment of safety culture existing in industrial facilities; Application of measures to enhance the safety culture; Lessons learned for the development of safety culture in nuclear power Learning experience of nuclear power countries such as the U.S., France and other countries to improve national legal system taking the highest safety criteria and the best world experience for nuclear power projects of Vietnam. Organization of activities of the nuclear regulatory body based on experience of nuclear power countries. 5

6 Development of human resource with competence to oversight the safety in every stage of the nuclear power project: Site Evaluation, Design Safety Evaluation, manufacturing, construction, installation, commissioning... Inclusion of safety culture in the content of mandatory safety training program for radiation workers Establishing an mechanism to monitor safety culture in nuclear power plants according to the guidelines of the IAEA (IAEA Draft - TECHDOC - DD 1070) - Activities of the operating organization aimed to promote safety culture: Following IAEA guidance to establish strategy for promotion of safety culture in the operating organization. Application of actions for improving safety culture within the organization from the early stage of the project VII. Conclusion Vietnam clearly understand the safety issues are the most concerned when decide embarking nuclear power programme. Aimed to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the NPP project, Vietnam is implementing specific activities towards the three essential elements: Establishment of the complete regulation system; Development of human resource with competence for oversight of NPP project and Building up "safety culture in organizations related to nuclear power plant project. Specific actions are being taken for improvement of safety culture in Vietnam such as completion of legal system taking into account best practices and learned lessons from nuclear power countries, enhancement of the understanding of safety culture in leaders, management, scientists and shop floor people, implementation of the national HDR program for RB, operating organization, TSO, promotion organizations and establishment of a management system to ensure safety culture be implemented and no compromise on quality be accepted in all phases of the nuclear power project. Sharing experiences and enhancement of international cooperation is an essential factor for rapidly forming and developing a culture of safety for nuclear power program. 6