Top Management Must Take Lead On Safety, Says New IAEA Safety Standard

9 Jun (NucNet): Senior executives of any organisation or facility involved in activities that could give rise to radiation risks must provide “leadership and management for safety”, according to an updated International Atomic Energy Agency safety requirements publication, adopted as an IAEA safety standard by the agency’s board of governors on 7 June. The IAEA said the revised requirements, ‘Leadership and Management for Safety’, place new emphasis on the role of senior management in ensuring safety form the harmful effects of radiation. The requirements call on senior management to demonstrate leadership for safety by ensuring “as an overriding priority” that safety and protection issues always receive the attention they warrant. The update introduces substantive changes that highlight that prioritising safety is a responsibility not only for staff on the control room floor, but also for chief executive officers and all personnel, the IAEA said. The publication, which incorporates lessons from the 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident, says senior management is responsible for “establishing, applying, sustaining and continuously improving a management system to ensure safety”. It says senior managers must identify and provide the resources needed to ensure safety. The revised standard is wider in scope to include facilities of all sizes – ranging from multi-reactor nuclear power plants to dentists' clinics – and regulatory bodies. IAEA safety standards are not binding, but are “widely applied”, the IAEA said.