Abstract
Despite great efforts to pursue a safe nuclear energy system during the first nuclear era, which was dominated by developed countries, severe nuclear accidents still occurred. Today, nuclear energy development has entered an unexpected second nuclear era, which is driven by developing countries. This may give rise to a great risk. Nuclear power plants are complex sociotechnical systems, and their safety has never been fully defined. We argue that social aspects, rather than just technical measures, must be involved to ensure nuclear safety. In this paper, the nature of nuclear safety is elucidated with identification of new challenges, and corresponding suggestions are proposed to improve nuclear safety in the unexpected second nuclear era.
Nuclear energy development has entered an unexpected second nuclear era, which is mainly driven by developing countries. Despite major efforts to pursue a safe nuclear energy system in the first nuclear era, severe nuclear accidents occurred. A basic problem is that we do not have an adequate understanding of nuclear safety. From the viewpoints of risk and the close coupling of technical and social factors, this paper reexamines the nature of nuclear safety and reviews how previous experts understood it. We also highlight the new challenges that we are likely to confront in the unexpected second nuclear era and clarify some of the refinements that need to be made to the concept of nuclear safety from a sociotechnical perspective. These include the following: 1) Risk decisions should be made based on integrating social and technical elements (i.e., “social rationality”); 2) risk needs to be controlled based on the “Wuli–Shili–Renli” framework; 3) systems thinking should be substituted for reductionism in risk assessment, and social mechanisms need to be combined to address uncertainties; and 4) public-centered risk communication should be established. This contribution can provide a theoretical foundation for improving our understanding of the nature of nuclear safety and for transforming the concept of nuclear safety in the unexpected second nuclear era.