NRC Safety Culture Initiatives

The link below is to a September 29, 2009 speech by Chairman Jaczko of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, outlining the NRC’s current initiative regarding safety culture and safety conscious work environment.  There is no big news in the speech, mostly it is notable for the continuing focus on safety culture issues at the highest level of the agency.

Perhaps of some significance is that almost all of Jaczko’s comments regard initiatives by the NRC on safety culture.  Not surprising in one sense in that it would be a logical focus for the NRC Chairman.  However I thought that the absence of industry-wide actions, perhaps covering all plants, could be perceived as a weakness.  Jaczko mentions that “We have seen an increasing number of licensees conducting periodic safety culture self-assessments…”, but that may only tend to highlight that each nuclear plant is going its own way.  True?  If so, will that encourage the NRC to define additional regulatory policies to bring greater uniformity?

Link to speech.