SAFETY CULTURE IN MAINTENANCE

Strengthening the safety culture in nuclear organizations has been a topic of IAEA meetings, workshops and publications [1-6]. However, in most cases the focus has been on the operating organizations that run the nuclear power plants. Yet maintenance in nuclear facilities is unique and needs special attention. Thus, it was decided to develop a report on safety culture in maintenance. 

Maintenance challenges can be divided into four areas, namely maintenance management human resources management plant condition assessment and business environment. These domains were chosen for practical reasons. Sections 3-6 feature examples of good practices and weaknesses in each of these four domains. Section 7 puts forward a structured method for self-assessment and some ideas to further improve the safety culture in maintenance. Section 8 deals with maintenance indicators and gives examples of good practices in this area. 

Safety culture is an attribute of the whole plant, and thus a strong safety culture in maintenance is a vital part of safe plant operation. The structured approach of maintenance needs clear roles and responsibilities to identify and study problems to make decisions on safety priority to prepare and schedule maintenance activities and to achieve a very high level of performance using approved documents, with supervision and control of quahty. Thus the safety culture will be exemplified in all aspects of maintenance. 

Communication is a significant element of the safety culture in maintenance. There are many ways to communicate the safety message. One... 

Safety culture in maintenance has to address an intrinsic dilemma, namely maintaining a creative, open minded and questioning attitude, while at all times sustaining conservatism in relation to reactor safety, accurate documentation and design conformity. It is important that plant personnel have up to date knowledge of plant configuration and equipment at all times, and that they are aware of the implications of their actions. 

Communications, teamwork, pre-job briefings, walkdowns of field activities, and giving and accepting feedback (i.e. open reporting) are all good examples of a strong safety culture in maintenance. 

The issue of cost effectiveness is a challenge to safety culture in maintenance organizations, which continuously have to strive to achieve the right balance between the cost of maintenance activities and plant safety. It is important that management ensures that plant staff are not being flooded with cost effective issues and that they provide escape routes as necessary. 

ASSESSMENT OF SAFETY CULTURE IN MAINTENANCE AND MEASURES FOR IMPROVEMENT... 

The following section identifies examples of the use of self-assessment at different levels relevant to safety culture in maintenance, as well as measures to further enhance safety culture. 

Another concern is the potential of deregulation to create challenges to the maintenance of an effective corporate safety culture. In the aviation and rail industries, corporate culture problems affected safety in the aftermath of mergers and acquisitions, and also at some of the new entrant airlines established after deregulation. In the years after deregulation, there were also indications of pressure to under-report some types of safety problems in the railroad industry, and evidence of maintenance violations at several major airlines. In the U.K. nuclear power industry, corporate culture concerns dealt with the excessive use of contractors and the loss of corporate expertise and institutional memory. 

Farrington-Daiby, T, Pickup, L. and Wilson, J.R. 2005. Safety culture in railway maintenance. Safety Science, 43, 39-60. 

Most of the incidents covered in this chapter involve improper execution of maintenance on storage tanks, on reactors, or on piping maintenance systems. A number of incidents involved lack of understanding of the presence of flammable vapors within tanks and the low quality of performance on hot work permits. There appears to be a lack of safety culture in many of these examples, but it is not discussed in this chapter. 

More broadly, the objectives for the Safety Case can include the development of an enhanced safety culture in the facility and the active participation of employees in the maintenance of a safe workplace. The Safety Case needs to clearly identify the methods used to involve employees in safety management. 

The company s management has responsibility for activities in the field of occupational health and safety, for environment protection, safe operation and maintenance, for safety of manufactured products, as weU as for offered services in compliance with respective legislative enactments. Top managers in a business are those who create conditions to implement safety culture in the business and carry out every activity for outcome efficiency determination, which comes from implementing OHS management systems as a tool for increasing business prosperity. 

Safety Culture in the Maintenance of Nuciear Power Plants... 

SAFETY CULTURE IN THE MAINTENANCE OE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS... 

Safety culture in the maintenance of nuclear power Plants. — Vienna International Atomic Energy Agency, 2005. 

The IAEA wishes to acknowledge the work performed by the consultants, the good practices highlighted and the proposals submitted by experts in Member States, aimed at strengthening safety culture in the area of nuclear power plant maintenance. 

The purpose of this report is to present experience and good practices in order to strengthen safety culture in the maintenance area and contribute... 

II, Chapters 4, 5, and 6 give all the information regarding the theoretical aspects involved in designing a complete NMMS and ensuring its successful implementation and maintenance. A complete system to detect, describe, analyse and follow-up near misses is outlined (Chapter 4), with special emphasis on a model-based classification of system failure (Chapter 5) a number of key issues relating to organisational aspects like acceptance by employees, and safety cultures are discussed in Chapter 6,... 

It must be emphasized that a component whose lifetime is exponentially distributed cannot be improved by maintenance. For an improvement would imply a reduction of its failure rate. In the present model it is ensured that the unavailability is equal to zero after every functional test. This is achieved by determining in the first place whether it is still capable of functioning or has failed. In the latter case the component is either repaired or replaced. If it is still capable of functioning it is as good as new because components with a constant failure rate do not age by definition. If it has to be repaired, as good as new is a hypothesis usually corroborated in plants with a good safety culture. 

The introduction and maintenance of a structured safety system will lead to a safety culture change within the organization. If one considers the effort, commitment, and change to the way safety is normally managed in a plant, the safety system will bring about a culture change. It will force leadership to become leaders and to create a positive environment where employees can feel comfortable participating in the safety activities. 

According to the ACSNl Study Group on Human Factors (HSC, 1993), a written corporate statement on the safety policy and organization should be a crucial element in the promotion and maintenance of a positive safety culture within the organization. Its objective should be to establish the corporate attitude to safety and the organizational framework through which the safety objectives can be assured. (Health and Safety Executive, 2001, p. 8)... 

So had the safety culture changed Yes The entire culture moved from a reactive mode into a proactive safety mode with the implementation and maintenance of a world s best safety management system led by the management teams. They provided the resources and allowed for the development of those resources, and also participated in the development process by attending the training and getting involved in safety inspections, committees, and recognizing employees. 

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