Development of Safety Culture-a Chinese Traditional Cultural Perspective

摘要

Living in a social community, the culture of an enterprise is certainly under the influence ofrnthat society. Safety culture of nuclear utilities is the core of the enterprise culture. As a formalrnexpression as defined in INSAG 3 & 4 by IAEA, it as a matter of fact originated from thernsumming up of the experiences of western nuclear industry, particularly after suchrnepoch-making accidents of Three Miles Island and Chyelnoble. In view of the geographicalrnculture theory, whether or not this conception of western industrial culture will be absorbedrnand assimilated by Chinese Nuclear Industry is a challenging issue. This is because, on thernone hand, Nuclear Power is comparatively speaking a newly developing industry in Chinarnand, on the other hand, China has enjoyed an uninterrupted history of traditional culture overrnfive thousand years. In other words, whether the new and alien values will conflict with or bernconstructively assimilated by our traditional mindset is a critical question to be answered inrnany development program of safety culture.rnSince Guangdong Nuclear Power Plant (GNPS) under CGNPC has come into commercialrnoperation in 1994, it has made incessant efforts to develop a safety culture with Chineserncharacteristics. All these efforts have already paid off as demonstrated by the outstandingrnperformance of the plant. In addition, the practices have been successfully applied andrninnovatively further developed in the construction and operations preparation of Ling AornNuclear Power Plant, the second project of CGNPC at Daya Bay. Our experience has provedrnthat so long as we keep an open mind we can learn from the west in one regard and makerninnovations by applying our traditional culture in developing the safety culture in the other.rnDuring the consultation program of safety culture training text material and the safety culturerndevelopment symposium, both organized by IAEA in 2001, the author of this article hasrnexpressed some of the views on the development of safety culture from the perspective ofrnChinese traditional philosophy. Some of these views are commented as very constructive andrnwave-like under the framework of safety culture development program of the Agency. Thisrnpaper is intended to highlight some of these views with the writer's latest findings. The keyrnpoints include the following.rn1. Revelation from the definition, the nature of safety culturern2. Culture versus substance, the part versus the whole, the basic intention of therndevelopment of safety culturern3. Integration of technology and human performance, the main contents of the culturerndevelopment programrn4. Education and coaching by the leaders and managers, the key to the success of safety.