Identification of Contributing Factors to Organizational Resilience in the Emergency Response Organization for Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

Resilience engineering is a new approach to safety, focused on systems for coping with complexity and balancing productivity with safety. Since the early 2000s, several studies have been conducted on the application of resilience to various industries. However, the nuclear industry has yet to harness the full potential of the resilience concept. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gave an inkling of the use of this concept in its report on the human and organizational factors related to the Fukushima nuclear power plant (NPP) accident. Although the ability of emergency response organizations (EROs) to reduce the radiation risks to the public in the case of accidents is crucial, no method has been developed so far to evaluate ERO resilience in NPPs. This paper aims to determine the factors that contribute to the resilience of EROs in NPPs. This work commenced by providing a systematic review of the literature on resilience factors as applied in several domains within the last two decades, including general domains, healthcare, transportation, infrastructure, process plants, and business. Based on the review, and the application of additional procedures like resilience analysis grid filtering, ERO applicability assessment, and merger/reclassification, the resilience factors are determined. Fifty-two factors contributing to the resilience of EROs in NPPs are proposed. The identified contributing factors are expected to aid efforts to develop resilience strategies and to measure the resilience of EROs in NPPs.