Extending Safety Culture Development through Communication - 12366

The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority has been implementing a regulatory support program in the Russian Federation for over 10 years, as part of the Norwegian government’s Plan of Action for enhancing nuclear and radiation safety in northwest Russia. The overall longterm objective is the enhancement of safety culture. The project outputs have included appropriate regulatory threat assessments, to determine the hazardous activities which are most in need of enhanced regulatory supervision; and development of the norms, standards and regulatory procedures, necessary to address the often abnormal conditions at nuclear legacy sites. Project outputs have been prepared and subsequently confirmed as official regulatory documents of the Russian Federation. The continuing program of work focuses on practical application of the enhanced regulatory framework as applied to legacy sites, including safe management of radioactive wastes arising in the process of site remediation. One of the lessons learnt from this practical application is the importance of effective communication at all levels:  between managers and shop workers;  between different operators – e.g. waste producers and waste disposal organisations;  between operators and regulators;  between nuclear safety regulators, radiation protection regulators and other pollution and safety regulators;  between scientists, policy makers and wider stakeholders; and  between all of those mentioned above.