| Nuclear: The Example for Safety Culture | | Print | |
| Wednesday, 01 September 2010 | ||
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Senior Nuclear industry figures have explained to the
US
oil spill commission how the nuclear industry used self-regulation to transform
levels of safety and performance.
Appearing before the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling were Jim Ellis, president and CEO of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operators (INPO), and the organisation's chairman emeritus, Zack Pate. On establishing the commission President Barack Obama said its aim is to to make recommendations to America on "how to prevent and mitigate the impact of any future spills that result from offshore drilling." Jim Ellis told the oil spill commission that Three Mile Island, although not harming the local population or environment, had nevertheless been caused "by a combination of human error, equipment and design problems," but more broadly, "showed weaknesses in the industry's approach to operational standards, training, the sharing and use of industry operating experience, and emergency response." Addressing these issues as well as the recommendations of the Kemeny Commission, INPO was established as a peer-review self regulatory body for the US nuclear industry. Since then, Ellis said, "there have been significant performance improvements in essentially every measure of safety and reliability." Ellis said certain key factors in INPO's approach have contributed to the US industry's progress. One is INPO's mission "to promote the highest levels of safety and reliability - to promote excellence." He continued: "the distinction of promoting excellence rather than regulatory compliance is fundamental to INPO's role in helping improve nuclear power performance." In a nuclear Peer Review top nuclear industry managers from across the globe will impart their own expertise to the operators of the plant under review and also in return bring improved techniques to their own facilities. This has done much to strengthen the understanding of safety culture in the nuclear industry. Co-chair of the commission William Reilly welcomed a chance to hear about INPO and nuclear safety culture, noting that its version of self-regulation had been a "great success... as an important safety complement to - not a substitute for - government oversight and regulation.
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