Abstract
The management has to implement and to preserve a high level of safety culture. The environment of a nuclear research centre induces specific challenges to this task. Those aspects relate to the nature of the installations, the human factors in a scientific environment and the specificity of the nuclear hazards. The rise and decline of safety cultures will be discussed. A sustainable safety culture requires safe installations, a convincing commitment by management, a clear assignment of responsibilities and the implementation and control of feasible procedures. All issues related to communication are very important. They require a specific social climate where blame-free reporting is essential. This climate has to be supported by an active participation of all levels of the organisation. The main threats to safety culture are over-confidence and the denial of small incidents to preserve the image of safety.
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© 2006 Springer
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Govaerts, P. (2006). THE RESPONSIBILITY OF HIGHER MANAGEMENT WITH RESPECT TO THE SAFETY POLICY OF RESEARCH CENTRES. In: Lambert, F., Volkov, Y. (eds) Safety Improvements through Lessons Learned from Operational Experience in Nuclear Research Facilities. NATO Security Through Science Series, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3888-7_08
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3888-7_08
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-3886-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-3888-4
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