Safety culture and organizational issues during decommissioning of nuclear power plants

In the late 1990s, the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI) was faced with regulating a decommissioning plant for the first time when the Swedish government decided to shut down Unit 1 of the Barseback nuclear power plant. SKI addressed three types of issues regarding this change: safety culture and organizational issues; technical issues; and nuclear waste issues. It was found that very little information was available on safety culture and organizational aspects of nuclear power plant closures. In contrast, substantial research and analysis regarding the technical requirements for shutdown and decommissioning have been conducted. SKI started to develop a long-term strategy for the regulation of decommissioning. Hence, SKI was concurrently: (1) identifying and addressing any immediate safety issues; (2) developing an overall long-term approach to regulation; and (3) obtaining more information on safety culture and organizational issues during decommissioning. The purpose of this paper is to further discuss safety culture and organizational issues during decommissioning.