South China Regional Office organizes nuclear safety culture self-assessment

In order to thoroughly practice the nuclear safety concept of “rationality, coordination, and progress,” and to push regulatory bodies to turn their blades inward and deepen and solidify the development of their own nuclear safety culture, the South China Regional Office of Nuclear and Radiation Safety Supervision of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (hereinafter referred to as the South China Regional Office) recently, at an important juncture marking the implementation of a new round of institutional reform, commissioned the China Nuclear Safety and Environmental Culture Promotion Association (hereinafter referred to as the Promotion Association) to organize a nuclear safety culture self-assessment.

This assessment is the first nuclear safety culture assessment of a regulatory body conducted after the release of the Guidelines for the Implementation of Nuclear Safety Culture Assessment (HJ1476-2026), and is of pioneering and landmark significance. To ensure that the assessment work is comprehensive, scientific, and effective, the Promotion Association assembled an assessment team composed of senior experts from the regulatory system, supervisory backbone personnel from regional supervision offices, and technical backbone personnel from industry units. In light of the actual situation of the South China Regional Office, the team clarified assessment priorities and optimized the assessment plan through methods such as all-staff questionnaire surveys, pre-assessment document reviews, and centralized intra-team discussions, laying a solid foundation for the smooth implementation of the assessment.

Before the assessment was launched, the principal person in charge of the Promotion Association conducted special training on “enhancing scientific understanding of nuclear safety culture” for the assessment team and all employees of the South China Regional Office. At the kick-off meeting, the principal person in charge of the South China Regional Office made mobilization and deployment arrangements, requiring the entire office to raise ideological awareness, uphold an open and candid attitude in fully cooperating with the assessment work, and treat this assessment as a comprehensive “diagnosis and consultation” for its own nuclear safety culture development, so as to foster a favorable assessment atmosphere. During the assessment, the assessment team systematically evaluated the overall state of nuclear safety culture development at the South China Regional Office across three dimensions—leadership responsibility, all-staff responsibility, and the management system—through methods such as personnel interviews, behavioral observations, and visits to nuclear power bases, distilling and summarizing good practices and precisely identifying shortcomings and weaknesses.

This assessment is an important practice by the South China Regional Office in strengthening its own development, and is of great significance for consolidating nuclear safety responsibilities at all levels, improving the management system, and enhancing regulatory credibility. The assessment achieved good results. First, all personnel of the office further deepened their understanding of the important significance of nuclear safety culture development in regulatory bodies. Regulatory concepts such as “strictness, prudence, meticulousness, and practicality” and “highest standards, strictest requirements” continued to be internalized in the mind, and the core task of building a nuclear safety regulatory team capable of shouldering heavy responsibilities became clearer. Second, the work of building a modernized regulatory system continued to be consolidated. The assessment precisely identified shortcomings in the nuclear safety culture development of the South China Regional Office, providing effective guidance for subsequently clarifying responsibilities, improving the system, enhancing management, and optimizing processes. Third, confidence in ensuring that nuclear safety is absolutely guaranteed and free of any failure became firmer. All personnel of the office came to understand more deeply that regulatory bodies must persist in putting strictness first and focusing on details, leading operating units by their own exemplary standards to consolidate their main responsibilities, and further consolidated within the office the shared understanding of “building a strong nuclear safety defense line by strengthening one’s own nuclear safety culture development.”

Next, the South China Regional Office will continue to place its own nuclear safety culture development in an important position, strictly pursue rectification and implementation, persist in systematic guidance, rigorous forging, and careful cultivation, and promote the deep integration of nuclear safety culture into the entire regulatory workflow, so as to provide solid cultural support for achieving high-quality development of the nuclear cause with high-level nuclear safety assurance.