On June 14, 2007, the 95th Safety Caravan was conducted at the Higashidori Nuclear Power Station of Tohoku Electric Power Company in Higashidori Village, Aomori Prefecture.

Approximately 60 workers of Tohoku Electric Power Company’s Higashidori Nuclear Power Station attended the Safety Presentation.
Opening the presentation, Director Shigeru Inoue of the Higashidori Nuclear Power Station said, “This power station commenced commercial operation in December 2005.  After 13 months of operation, outage started in January, and was completed on June 6.  In conventional outage, the Safety Code is applied from the time of fuel loading.  At this power station, however, it is applied from the point when new fuel is transported into the premises.  As far as I know, this is the first such attempt among all electric utilities.  Also, the Safety Code we apply is a substantially revised version adopted after law amendments and other system reforms, incorporating the Quality Management System.  For this reason, we have poured extensive efforts into building and establishing QMS.  Having to establish it from scratch required enormous efforts, but helped us perfect a good system, free from any constraints of old systems.
The culture of Safety First has been the premise of this power station since Day 1, and we have also worked toward establishing the cultures of employee initiatives and information sharing. Employee initiated culture represents the approach in which individual workers take initiatives in proceeding with work duties.  This is particularly important in work associated with procurement.  Information sharing culture aims at sharing information across sectional and inter-personal borders, so that all workers feel a sense of involvement in extending mutual support to complete tasks.  At this young workplace, it is necessary for individual workers to initiate information sharing and bring out the full potential of the organization.
Outage work has been completed, and preparation is now underway for the second cycle and second outage.  We are determined to achieve an even higher level of outage work in the future.”

Lecture highlights

In the lecture, Prof. Sugiman pointed to the need of establishing the concept of “a learning organization” in addition to the conventional notion of “a managing organization”.  This can be effectively applied to the development of Safety Culture in a nuclear energy organization.  Management and regulatory authorities are familiar with the approach of “a managing organization” but have not taken the approach of “a learning organization”

A learning organization” does not signify an organization with members who are enthusiastic about learning.  At any workplace or organization, there are always a number of “implicit premises” (untold understanding).  This is why they can smoothly proceed with their activities.  However, at the same time, the implicit premises are putting constraints on the decision-making or activities of the workplace / organization.  When you encounter an unprecedented issue or are required to implement innovative activities, the presence of implicit premises could serve to constrain you.
People are not usually conscious about or verbally refer to implicit premises, because of the fact that they are so evident.  We are unaware of the underlining premises.  We comply with them without even realizing it.  That is the characteristic of implicit premises.
“A learning organization” is the organization that facilitates communication that makes its members aware of the implicit premises they are standing on, and communication that frees them from the constraints of the implicit premises.  The book by Peter Senge that advocated the theory of the “learning organization” is considered to be one of the publications that have given the greatest impact on U.S. economic societies in the last decade.
At this time of a major transition and exposure to the unknown experience of “globalization”, it is necessary to identify and change implicit premises without being bound to them.  There is a growing sense of resistance, especially among younger generations, against the top-down management approach.  In order to reduce this sense of resistance and create a forward-looking vector, an organization must evolve into a learning organization, whereby its members can exchange their opinions mutually and gain fresh insight to transform their preconceptions.

This lecture explored the use of “activity theory” to develop a “learning organization” and foster Safety Culture at nuclear facilities.

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

●The lecture based on the results of field surveys was useful and easy to understand.  I have come to realize the importance of workplace climate that does not inhibit the accumulation of “small discoveries”.

Safety information exchange session

Fukui and Takagi from the Institute of Nuclear Safety System attended the Safety Information Exchange Session to exchange opinions about workplace safety climate, as requested by the Higashidori Nuclear Power Station of Tohoku Electric Power Company.