Article

INTRODUCTION

Safety is a primary requirement for nuclear installations taking into account the risks and consequences of a failure in them. Culture is the shared assumptions of a group that it has learned in coping with external tasks, and dealing with internal relationships and it is a product of social learning. Safety performance can be improved by enhancing the safety culture. Safety culture aims in sharing common attitude, values, norms and beliefs among all stake holders of nuclear installations. Ensuring safety culture is a continuous process by which all the stake holders share a common attitude, belief, values and norms on risks and safety. A positive attitude to safety, however, is not in itself sufficient to create a safety culture. Senior management needs to give leadership in quite specific ways. A more fruitful approach is to emphasize safety and loss prevention as a matter of professionalism¹.The attitude of top management to safety must be continuous and interactive². The route to safe plants is to have a ‘Safety Culture’. One element of a culture is discipline and safety culture amounts to ‘operating discipline’. Lack of discipline was the direct cause of some of the accidents³. The management should take adequate and concerted measures to improve safety culture. The organizations should believe that the safety can be improved for ensuring and enhancing safety culture. The Safety education is the only available method in effecting changes in attitudes, values, beliefs and norms among all stake holders. This paper deliberates on designing a specific safety education program to nuclear installations with the objective of enhancing safety culture in them. The implementation of this program at predetermined intervals would enhance the safety culture, resulting in improved safety by ensuring common perception among all stake holders towards risks and safety.

CONCEPTUAL FRAME WORK

CULTURE

Culture is a pattern of basic assumptions – invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problem of external adaptation and internal integration – which has evolved over time and is handed down from one generation to the next⁴.

SAFETY CULTURE

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines safety culture as “A reflection of the values, which are shared throughout all levels of the organization and which are based on the belief that safety is important and that it is everyone’s responsibility.” It is also defined as “assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals which establishes that as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance⁵”.

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF SAFETY CULTURE

There are three stages of development of safety culture and they are as follows⁶:

Safety based on rules and regulation

The organization sees safety as an external requirement, and the external requirements are those of government, the legal framework and the regulatory bodies. There is little awareness of the behavioural and attitudinal aspects of safety. Safety is seen as a technical issue, to be achieved by compliance with rules and regulations.

Safety becomes an organizational goal

The organization considers safety to be an important organizational goal, even in the absence of external requirements. Safety is dealt with in terms of targets or goals, with accountabilities for achieving the goals specified.

Safety can always be improved

An organization in this stage has adopted the idea of continuous improvement and applied the concept to safety. There is a strong emphasis on communication, training, management style and improving efficiency and effectiveness. People within the organization understand the impact of cultural issues on safety.

SAFETY EDUCATION

Safety education is the pro-active development of knowledge, attitude, behaviour and skills of stake holders on safety. Good safe attitude, behaviour and skills evolved by the safety education contribute to overall accident reduction program in the industry. Safety education for all levels of management personnel and workers on a continual basis is vital for the success of the safety education program. The objectives of the safety education are:-

· To develop safety consciousness among employees.

· To build up knowledge, skill and attitude towards and safety.

· To ensure safe work performance on the part of stake holders.

SAFETY EDUCATION PROGRAM

It is a type of program which has been designed with specific modules on safety pertinent to Nuclear Installations and provided to the stake holders to enhance their knowledge, attitude, behaviour and skills with the objective of empowering safety culture.

SAFETY EDUCATION PROGRAM MODULE

‘Module’ is defined as a unit or period of education and it is a self-contained and self-sufficient unit of instructions in a formalized and complete learning package. It helps the learner understand the crux of the subject, to develop the required qualities and to apply the learned knowledge in practice. All the learning resources are contained within each module and suited when an educational program is developed for large number of learners and need to be repeated many times.

METHOD

Safety culture is the dominant aspect of the organizational culture and existence of safety policies, plans, objectives, monitoring, risk assessment and control system, safety management information system, audits, safety training, reviews, systems and involvement of senior management are tangible evidence of safety leadership, which is important for developing a positive safety culture. An essential element of any safety culture is proper training, especially in the diagnosis of abnormal situations, so that those involved will react appropriately in emergency³. Safety education to all the stake holders on a continual basis is the primary requirement in ensuring and enhancing safety culture in Nuclear Installations. The steps involved in methodology adopted in this paper includes safety culture enhancement process, role of safety education in promoting safety culture, design of safety education program and implementation of the designed safety education program.

SAFETY CULTURE ENHANCEMENT PROCESS

The enhancement of safety culture consists of the following steps⁶:

1. Top management commitment to launch a safety culture enhancement program.

2. Self assessment of the present safety culture.

3. Formation of an assessment team to perform the self-assessment.

4. Gaining common understanding and frame of reference of safety culture through training of both senior management team and appointed assessment team.

5. Development of the assessment tools.

6. Performing self – assessment, analyzing the results and presentation of findings.

7. Development of an improvement program based on the results of self-assessment.

8. Implementation of the improvement program.

9. Follow-up of effects of the improvement program through a new self-assessment of safety culture.

10. Peer review of the organization’s safety culture by an external team.

The safety education program is one such improvement program aimed at enhancing safety culture among all the stake holders.

ROLE OF SAFETY EDUCATION IN PROMOTING SAFETY CULTURE

Imparting of safety education results in development, safety awareness, skills, attitude, beliefs, norms and behaviour among the trainees. The safety education needs are to be identified with a view to promote safety culture among all stake holders. The safety education essentially consists of the following:

· Training the managers/supervisors/workers/contractors in the basic concepts of organizational culture.

· Workers / Contract Workers participation in safety management.

· Creating awareness, skill, attitude, norms, beliefs and awareness among stake holders towards risks and safety.

· Emergency preparedness and response planning.

· Legal compliance.

· Communication of safety issues to the public.

DESIGN OF THE SAFETY EDUCATION PROGRAM

The steps of the designed safety education program module by retaining the essential steps of the universally accepted and acclaimed models such as Hopper’s Model (1981), UNESCO Model and UGC Curriculum Model, are as follows:-

· Introduction

· General objectives

· Specific objectives

· Motivation

· Overview

· Content specification

· Development of the contents and consolidation of the learning outcomes.

Self enrichment questions in the form of objective questions are presented at the end of each capsule of the modules. The designed safety education modules for enhancing safety culture in nuclear installations along with concerned stake holders are presented in Table 1.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DESIGNED SAFETY EDUCATION PROGRAM

The designed safety education modules should be imparted to among all stake holders by conducting the safety education program on a continual basis for effective enhancement of safety culture in nuclear installations. The frequency for conducting the designed safety education program should be predetermined before actual commencement of the implementation of safety education programs.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The designed safety education modules should be suitably adapted to each group of stake holders by taking into account of their educational level, responsibilities, duties and expected functions of them in nuclear installations. The periodicity at which the implementation of the designed safety education modules is also an important factor in achieving the expected enhancement in safety culture, which requires to be decided in advance by taking into account of all factors like practicability, need, requirements and availability of personnel and facilities into consideration.

CONCLUSION

The continual implementation of the safety education program enhances the sharing of common attitude, values, norms and belief among all stake holders on risk and safety in Nuclear Installations. The safety education program prescribes objectives and motivation towards learning to effect attitudinal changes among stake holders, thus ensuring enhancement in safety culture. To ensure effectiveness, these designed modules should be updated on a continual basis by incorporating the developments in the field of nuclear safety.

The enhancement in safety culture in nuclear installations would change the organizational culture, thus ensuring and enhancing the safety in Nuclear Indu

REFERENCES

[1] Lees. P, Loss Prevention in the Process Industries; Hazard Identification, Assessment and Control, Volume 2, Second Edition, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, (2003), pp.28/2

[2] Skelton. B, Process Safety Analysis; An Introduction, Institution of Chemical Engineers, Warwickshire, UK, 1997, pp. 4.

[3] Kharbanda O.P. and Stallworthy C.A, Safety in the Chemical Industry, Lessons from Major Disasters, Heinemann Professional Publishing, London, 1988, pp-293 – 295.

[4] Schein. E, Organizational Culture and Leadership, Josse – Bass Inc, (1992)

[5] International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group, Safety Culture, Safety Service No. 75 – INSAG – 4, IAEA, Vienna (1991)

[6] Safety Culture in Nuclear Installation & Guidance for use in the enhancement of Safety Culture, IAEA-TECDOC-1329, International Atomic Energy Agency, December, (2002)

Table 1: Designed Safety Education Modules with Concerned Stake Holders

Module No.	Module Subject	Capsules	Stake Holders
Module No.	Module Subject	Capsules	Manage-ment	Direct workers	Indirect workers	Visitors	Govt.	Public
I.	Basic concepts	Safety, Accident, Prevention of accidents, Need for prevention of accidents, Costs of accidents	·	·	·	·	·	·
II.	Legal Statutes and Requirements	Relevant legislations, Agreements, Compliance requirements, Strategies for compliance, Documentation	·	·	·		·
III.	Safety with nuclear reactors	Pressure system, Protective systems, Radio- activity health effects, Major hazard control, Nuclear hazard control	·	·	·		·
IV.	Nuclear Hazard Assessment	Probabilistic risk assessment, Accident consequences and scenarios, Fire, Explosion – steam and hydrogen explosion, Effects of Natural disasters like earthquakes, floods and tsunami, Computer error, Human error	·	·	·		·	·
V.	Nuclear Pressure Systems	Inspection techniques, Fracture mechanics, Seismic qualification of equipments Ageing
VI.	Nuclear Reactor Operation	Human factors, Process operators, Display and alarm system, Control room, Operating procedures, Operator training	·	·	·
VII.	Radiation Safety	Radiation – Concept, Types and effects of radiation exposure, Radiation pollution, Radiation exposure levels, Dangers due to radiation exposure	·	·	·	·	·	·
VIII.	Process Control and Safety Management System	Process control system, Safety system and Auxiliary system, Participative Safety Management, Safety Committee.	·	·	·			v
IX.	Design for reliability of structures, systems and components	Basic rules, Provisions for in-service testing, maintenance, repair, inspection and monitoring, Human factors, Equipment qualification, Other design consideration.	·	·	·

Table No. 1: Designed Safety Education Modules with Concerned Stake Holders (contd.)

Plant Safety

Operating limits and conditions, Safety limits Limiting of safety system setting, Limits and conditions for normal operation, Surveillance requirements, Operating procedures, Emergency operating procedures.

XI.

Functional Safety

Safety functions and safety related system, Challenges in achieving functional safety, System integrity, Safety integrity levels

XII.

Control Systems Assessment

Significance of control system, safety related system / protection system (trips and interlocks) Sensing, Actuators and signal conversion, Remote diagnostic system, process control systems

XIII.

Human Error

Types of human error, Operator stress, Human error assessment methods, Human error prevention strategies

XIV.

Emergency Planning

On-site emergency planning and Off-site emergency planning

XV.

Site security

Types of intentional threats, Consequences of threats, Protective system against such threats, Emergency procedures, Emergency preparedness and response planning.

XVI.

Nuclear Incidents, Accidents and Disasters

Case studies on Nuclear accidents, Nuclear incidents and Nuclear disasters

Dr.R.K.Elangovan

Director (Safety)

Central Labour Institute

Sion, Mumbai 400 022

DGFASLI AT A GLANCE

The Directorate General Factory Advice Service & Labour Institutes (DGFASLI) is an attached office of the Ministry of Labour & Employment Government of India. DGFASLI organization was set up in 1945 under the Ministry of Labour, Government of India to serve as a technical arm to assist the Ministry in formulating national policies on occupational safety and health in factories and docks and to advise State Governments and factories on matters concerning safety, health, efficiency and well-being of the persons at workplace. It also enforces safety and health statutes in major ports of the country.

The Directorate General Factory Advice Service & Labour Institutes (DGFASLI) comprises:

·         Headquarters situated in Mumbai

·         Central Labour Institute in Mumbai

·         Regional Labour Institutes in Kolkata, Chennai,

         Faridabad* and Kanpur

Vision of DGFASLI: DGFASLI envisions emerging as an organization of excellence in creating knowledge, formulating policies, standards and practices to ensure safe and healthy workplaces for all in factories and ports.

Mission of DGFASLI: The mission of DGFASLI is to render its expertise in occupational safety and health for evolving safe and healthy workplaces in factories and ports through a process of partnership, guidance, regulatory activities in specific sector and information sharing.

DGFASLI organization comprises of its Headquarters situated in Mumbai, Central Labour Institute (CLI) in Mumbai, four Regional Labour Institutes (RLI) in Chennai, Faridabad, Kanpur & Kolkata and eleven Inspectorate of Dock Safety (IDS) offices located in Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Kandla, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Chennai, Tuticorin, Cochin, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, and Paradip. DGFASLI organization consists of a multidisciplinary team of around 129 officers (engineers, physicians, industrial hygienists, physiologists, ergonomists, industrial psychologists, commercial artists etc.) and 81 technical staff members. Various specialty divisions/cells under DGFASLI office and Central Labour Institutes in Mumbai include a) Factory Advice Service, b) Dock Safety, c) Construction Safety, d) Awards, e) Statistics, f) Industrial Safety, g) Industrial Hygiene, h) Industrial Medicine, i) Industrial Physiology & Ergonomics, j) Staff Training, Productivity & Small Scale, k) Industrial Psychology, I) Major Hazards Chemical Safety, m) Management Information Services; n) Environmental Engineering and 0) Communication Division. The Regional Labour Institutes are a scaled-down version of the Central Labour Institute and cater to the needs of their respective regions through its specialty divisions like Industrial Safety, Industrial Hygiene and Medical. The organization is poised to grow further, and meet the increased demands on it. In a developing country with a large number of industries having diverse and complex nature, the task of protecting safety and health of workers is an uphill task. Armed with the technology, good will of the industrial society and the strength of the dedicated staff, the organization is well prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow. It is committed to the goal of making the workplace safer.

Visit us at: www.dgfasli.nic.in