The 93rd Safety Caravan was conducted at Nuclear Development Corporation in Tokai-mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki Prefecture on March 2, 2007. (The Safety Presentation was co-sponsored by Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel Co., Ltd., held on March 1.)

Approximately 20 employees of Nuclear Development Corporation attended the Safety Presentation. The presentation began with a salutation from Mr. Hideo Hariyama, Representative Director and Vice President of Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel Co., Ltd. After this opening remarks, Mr. Naruse, one of JANTI's directors, presented an overview of this organization's activities, followed by Dr. Toshio Sugiman, Professor of the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University who will lecture on "Fomenting a Safety Culture Through a 'Learning Organization'."

Lecture highlights

In addition to the concept of a "managing organization," the concept of "the learning organization" is also being sought. The concept of fomenting a safety culture in the nuclear power organization is also being sought. Conventionally, could it be said that both on the organization's side and on the regulatory side, although there has been the concept of the "managing organization," that of the "learning organization" has been scant. A "learning organization" does not mean an organization whose members do a lot of studying. In any workplace, in any organization, there are always going to be a great number of "self-evident prerequisites" (unspoken rules). That is what makes it possible for the workplace or organization's activities to proceed smoothly. At the same time, however, these self-evident prerequisites tend to restrict the actions and decision making ability of the organization or workplace. And especially when confronted by a new problem for which there is no precedent, or when there is a call for some new activity which has never existed up until now, we may find our hands and feet bound by self-evident prerequisites. As for these self-evident prerequisites, because they are so plainly obvious, they do not even enter into the conscious mind, nor are they ever verbally expressed. In other words, it is difficult to become aware of the self-evident prerequisites that are based within ourselves. We follow these rules to the letter even without being aware of them -- those are what we can call self-evident prerequisites. A "learning organization" is one where everyone communicates in a way conducive to becoming aware of these self-imposed self-evident prerequisites and where everyone communicates in a way conducive to breaking free from the bonds of self-evident prerequisites. The book written by Peter M. Senge that raises the theory of the "learning organization" is one of the literary works that has had the most profound impact on the Academy of Management in the US over the past ten years. In this era of major changes, and the era of not-yet-known experiences of globalization, we need to become aware of the conventional self-evident prerequisites and reshape them so as not to be shackled by such self-evident prerequisites. Also, the urge to resist top-down type organizational management is becoming stronger, particularly among the younger generation. What is called for is a learning organization where that urge to resist is diminished and one that produces a forward-looking vector, in other words, an organization that is capable of refreshing experiences where ideas can meet head on, where one can say, "Oh, really, that's what I had assumed, but..." Today's lecture invokes "activity theory" in order to materialize the "learning organization" within the nuclear power organization and give depth to the fomenting of safety culture.

In the questionnaire after the presentation, the following opinions were expressed.

•I believe that we need to have flexibility in thinking, the ability to perceive everything from a new perspective and alter our hitherto viewpoints.  I felt that it is important to create and preserve an environment that makes use of those small awarenesses that we become aware of from such a perspective, and also important to make oneself conscious of the ability to proactively communicate those things we become aware of.

•The discussion about the need for openness in "heterogeneity" while maintaining "continuous improvement" left an impression upon me.  I think hereafter we ought to take up the issue of how to adopt heterogeneity into our company's safety activities.

•It renewed my recognition of the importance of steadily combining "little awarenesses" with "little attempts," and especially the importance of managers fulfilling their roles in order to accomplish this combining.  This will be a handy reference in transforming into an "organization capable of learning" and the road to creating safety culture.

•We casually use terms like "activity" and "organization" on a daily basis, but I was able to recognize anew the deeper meaning and backdrop behind those words, and they made a deep impression.  "Little attempts" are our endeavors to accumulate little improvements in safety activities, but there are things that are possible and things that are not possible, and my concern is about activities tapering off.  In order to materialize a vision (dream), I feel that at some point in time it will be necessary (as a step-up) to reform the basic substance of the organization.

Safety information exchange session

The Safety Information Exchange Session was honored by the presence of Mr. Kazunori Isozaki, Deputy Manager of Fast Reactor Section 2, Fast Experimental Reactor Department at the JAEA Oarai Research and Development Center and Mr. Yoshikazu Seya, Sub-Assistant Manager at NESI Corporation who, at the request of Nuclear Development Corporation, both gave detailed presentations on "Support for Maintenance Work at Experimental Fast Reactor 'Joyo'." After the presentation, opinions were exchanged regarding the above-mentioned endeavors.