2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul: Achieving Sustainable Nuclear Security Culture

[bananas]

http://www.fas.org/blog/ssp/2011/08/nuclear_security_culture.php

Aug 31
2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul: Achieving Sustainable Nuclear Security Culture
By Igor Khripunov

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), nuclear security culture is “the assembly of characteristics, attitudes and behavior of individuals, organizations and institutions which serves as a means to support and enhance nuclear security.”<1> The concept of security culture emerged much later than nuclear safety culture, which was triggered by human errors that led to the Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents. Much as these incidents confirmed the importance of nuclear safety, security culture has gained acceptance as a way to keep terrorist groups from acquiring radioactive materials and prevent acts of sabotage against nuclear power infrastructures. Safety and security culture share the goal of protecting human lives and the environment by assuring that nuclear power plants operate at acceptable risk levels.

The 2010 Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington, DC, emphasized the importance of culture as a critical contributing factor to nuclear security:



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The 2012 Summit in Seoul needs to focus on at least four specific measures contributing to the sustainability of nuclear security culture in individual countries and globally. The improvement of security culture is a continuous process. In the absence of a terrorist attack against nuclear power infrastructure, the element of sustainability plays a critical role in countering low motivation and complacency.

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