NRC Chairman on Safety Culture

NRC Chairman Jaczko recently gave a speech* where he presented three ongoing challenges to the nuclear industry: knowledge management, safety culture and public outreach.  We applaud the chairman for continuing to emphasize safety culture.  He indicated it was important to have a strong safety culture, all industry participants need to have a consistent focus on safety, and complacency is a potential pitfall.

Unfortunately, he plowed no new ground in his remarks.  We think the chairman should have mentioned the potential for lessons learned from recent disasters in other industries.  In addition, with the U.S. nuclear renaissance trying to get underway, we believe he could have pointed out the need for a strong safety culture at all the players who will be involved in building new plants: designers, fabricators, suppliers, contractors, owners, and many others.

*  Jaczko, G.B., “Focus on Regulation.” Prepared Remarks for the Goizueta Directors Institute, Atlanta, GA, (NRC S-10-031) August 10, 2010.