The Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) believes in the importance of having a working group dedicated to safety culture. The Working Group on Safety Culture (WGSC) provided a senior-level regulatory forum for exchanging information and experiences and engaged in work to ensure that the safety culture of the regulatory body and wider interconnected system have a positive impact on safety.

The WGSC focused on practical steps that can be taken regarding issues such as the effective implementation of the characteristics and culture of an effective regulatory body as well as other matters regarding safety culture. It did so by considering behaviours, perceptions and attitudes that make up the culture of the regulatory body within national, historical and geographical contexts. This group also considered the effects caused by the interactions of the regulatory body in terms of what regulatory programmes, approaches and capabilities might be required to encourage enhanced safety culture in licensee organisations. In short, WGSC activities focused on:

• the development and maintenance of a healthy safety culture within regulatory bodies;
• the development of practical implementation tools for developing a healthy safety culture from shared activities, lessons learnt, reports, and the outcomes of periodic meetings;
• identifying and capturing best practices on how the safety culture of the regulator affects the regulated entity’s safety culture, and vice versa;
• promoting the use of regulator safety culture programmes and approaches that positively influence regulated entities safety;
• establishing a framework for engagement with other working groups and technical committees to discuss issues identified by the group that have cross-cutting interests;
• continuously cataloguing the experiences and lessons learnt associated with the implementation of policies and strategies to support a healthy safety culture with a specific focus on the NEA documents The Characteristics of an Effective Nuclear Regulator (2014) and The Safety Culture of an Effective Nuclear Regulatory Body (2016) and make recommendations as appropriate.

In 2021, the WGSC published its first major report entitled Methods for Assessing and Strengthening the Safety Culture of the Regulatory Body. This report further explores some of the key elements presented in The Safety Culture of an Effective Regulatory Body (2016), commonly known as the NEA Green Booklet, and provides both an overview and practical information on the methods and tools used by regulatory bodies to assess their own safety culture and to build safety culture competence and awareness. The NEA encourages regulatory bodies to use this report as a reference for reviewing and improving their activities to foster and enhance a healthy safety culture. Finally, the report proposes ten conclusions to inspire managers to develop and sustain efforts to maintain a healthy safety culture within the regulatory body.

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