Challenges of Integrated International Nuclear Security and Safety Culture Programs

There has been a large volume of information published regarding the country-specific development and implementation of programs for nuclear security culture and nuclear safety culture, primarily based on the guidance provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, certain challenges become evident when considering how cultural elements of security-safety programs translate and transfer across national and international country boundaries. Often what works within the culture of one country may not coordinate with the parallel programs of another country. In some instances the cultural differences across national boundaries and within international programs make it very difficult to implement nuclear security and safety programs that achieve the ultimate objectives intended for these programs. Conflicting cultural and societal aspects of religion, race and sexual equality, governance, etc., can create friction points that are not conducive to the coordination that is required for a more global objective. This creates an environment where nonproliferation initiatives may be bypassed and weaknesses within the nuclear security-safety culture may be exploited by adversarial persons or organizations. This paper discusses some of these cultural differences and provides a proposed process evolution for consideration of these differences and how the inherent issues may be addressed. Issues that include cultural aspects of evaluative tools such as threat analysis and risk identification are discussed. The evaluation and conclusions are based on the experience of the authors in working with nuclear security and safety culture programs for a number of countries that have differing national societal cultures and approaches to security-safety culture implementation.