Safety and Security Culture Link Lessons from the Past

Safeguarding nuclear material became paramount for international security since the end of the Cold War and after September 11, 2001. On the one hand, nuclear materials became more available and accessible as a result of USSR collapse and the emergence of many new suppliers. On the other, the nature and intensity of the threat has changed, making previously existing measures to safeguard nuclear materials less adequate. The biggest threat to international security since early 1990s is the theft of nuclear materials with its subsequent use by terrorists. The emphasis during these early years was on quickly fixing security gaps at a large number of nuclear facilities. There was little time to develop a comprehensive strategy of not only funding, building and installing these upgrades, but also making sure that they are properly used and operated. It soon became clear that these initial strategies placed insufficient emphasis on the human factor of MPC&A. The installed equipment was in many cases incompatible with the work practices and threat perceptions of the personnel. The subsequent efforts to develop an appropriate security culture among the personnel that addresses the new security threats have produced positive results. Security culture received the high level attention it undoubtedly deserves at the U.S.-Russian Bratislava summit in February 2005. However, most observers agree that changing security culture is not as easy as installing technical upgrades: cultures are resilient to change and develop gradually - whereas quick response is needed. Such a cultural shift successfully occurred in the nuclear sector after the Chernobyl accident in 1986 within the safety culture domain - not only on personnel level, but on the level of facility management, national leadership and general public. The accident also helped revolutionize the international perspectives and cooperation on nuclear safety, resulting in new international norms and regulations to prevent such accidents in the future. This paper examines the evolution of safety culture shift and its applicability to the ongoing work on improving security culture at nuclear facilities worldwide.