Can Driving and Texting Coexist?

In the July 18, 2009 online edition of The New York Times, there is an interesting example of the use of a simulation game to illustrate the impact of texting on a driver’s ability to drive safety and react to changing road conditions. Upon completion of the game, the player is provided with a quantification of his driving performance with and without the distraction presented by receiving and sending text messages.

I thought this would be interesting to nuclear safety management practitioners for several reasons. First, it is another illustration of how simulation games can provide realistic experiences of situations they may have to manage in real life - without the risks associated with the real life activity.

Second, this game demonstrates the impact of competing priorities (texting and driving) on the ability of the driver to maintain performance at a consistent level. In the nuclear operations world, safety management failures are often associated with the impact of competing priorities or pressures on the ability of personnel to perform reliably. The driving game suggests that there is always some diminution of performance due to the competing priority of texting. Is that true of nuclear safety management or is it possible, with sufficient training and practice, to manage competing priorities?

Link to article.

Foreign Nuclear Plant Problems Cast a Long Shadow

Recent news items refer to the Swedish power company Vattenfall and problems that have occurred at two of their plants: Ringhals in Sweden and Krummel in Germany.  In both cases the underlying causes of the problems and/or reactions to the events revealed safety culture issues.  These are just two recent examples of the ongoing prevalence of safety culture issues in the global nuclear industry.  Part of the larger picture is the impact on the debate in Germany about any continuing role for nuclear power, even for the existing plants.  The performance of Vattenfall has created political problems for German Chancellor Merkel and the other principals in Germany's nuclear industry.  This highlights the threat of a safety culture failure in one organization to cast a large shadow over the future of the industry.

The situation at Ringhals is discussed here.

There is a lengthy discussion of Krummel on Spiegel Online.