The safety culture is defined as the combination of characteristics, attitudes and behaviors in individuals, organizations and institutions which establishes that, as an overriding priority, protection and safety issues receive the attention warranted by their significance. It is a concept that can be used to analyze and explain the underlying logic of the regulatory behavior of the nuclear or radiation facility as well as the ecosystem around it, which is related in particular to how the facility works in regard to safety. Radiation Safety depends on the ability of the facilities and other stakeholders to anticipate the risks inherent in the radiation practices and how ready they are to address daily activities. The ability to monitor, respond to and learn from risks is the essence of the safety culture.
There are two general components of the Nuclear safety culture. The first is the necessary framework within the facility, which is the responsibility of the management hierarchy in the facility, while the second is the attitude of personnel at all levels to respond to and benefit from the framework. According to the culture of nuclear and radiation safety, safety cannot be reduced only to technical reliability; rather, it is a characteristic of all components of the entire technical and administrative structure. One of the most important indicators of safety culture is the ongoing level of acceptable questioning of the prevailing way of managing nuclear and radiation activities and practices and their levels of safety and adequacy as well as steering away from overlooking or disregarding weaknesses of a safety culture.
NRRC significantly affects the licensees' Nuclear safety culture and their sense of responsibility for safety. The NRRC places a great importance on the need to ensure safety culture to all authorized activities and facilities. NRRC believes that the authorized person commitment to safety culture will greatly contribute to the overall safety objective at both activity and facility. Thus, NRRC must be aware of the impact of its own safety culture of the operation licensee under its supervision, in order to enhance their level of safety culture, which enhances the level of nuclear and radiation safety. It is NRRC's commitment to not address safety culture as a matter of supervision and control, instead as a matter of self-reflection on the effectiveness of national regulatory control measures.
NRRC assess how its safety culture affects the safety culture of the authorized person and reflects its role within the wider regulatory system environment, emphasizing that its safety culture is the result of its interaction with the authorized person and the relevant stakeholders.
Strategic initiatives promoting Safety culture:
* Strengthening safety culture and promoting compliance to radiation safety as an essential foundation of NRRC roles and functions to all relevant stakeholders such as the general public, health practitioners and medical and industrial facilities that leads to strengthening of safety culture in the Kingdom. This is reflected through the organizational structure of NRRC by focusing on nuclear and radiation safety and providing possible resources and tools, including performance measurement tools and promoting self-assessment guidance for the radiation safety culture among those concerned.
* Developing and implementing a comprehensive communication and awareness strategy through multiple media channels and different target audiences, including the general public, professionals and NRRC staff, identifying their interests and concerns, preparing and classifying information materials by the target group and communication channel, and developing a specific mechanism to measure the confidence of the target audience in the NRRC.
* Development of a program for designing and launching of the distinguished service and radiation safety culture award, which aims to develop and implement the reward and recognition program for distinguished facilities in safety culture.
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