Ethics, risk and safety culture: Reflections on fukushima and beyond

Abstract

This chapter discuses the relationship between safety culture and societal culture within the context of ethics and risk, and how this relationship may have influenced the accident at Fukushima. Following a brief historical perspective on culture and technology, the context espoused by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission regarding safety culture is summarized, as they pertain to the accident at Fukushima. Based on some reflections regarding the accident at Fukushima, the chapter then argues that when safety culture, which is explicit and is “designed” to fulfill a task in present time, and societal culture, which is implicit and evolves “organically” over millennia are incongruent with each other, the latter can undermine the former, thus highlighting the difficulty in bringing the nuclear safety culture of Japan up to international standards. This chapter concludes that a cultural risk assessment be carried out to help overcome this difficulty in the future.