The responsibility of higher management with respect to the safety policy of research centres

The management has to implement and to preserve a high level of safety culture. The environment of a nuclear research centre induces specific challenges to this task. Those aspects relate to the nature of the installations, the human factors in a scientific environment and the specificity of the nuclear hazards. The rise and decline of safety cultures will be discussed. A sustainable safety culture requires safe installations, a convincing commitment by management, a clear assignment of responsibilities and the implementation and control of feasible procedures. All issues related to communication are very important. They require a specific social climate where blame-free reporting is essential. This climate has to be supported by an active participation of all levels of the organisation. The main threats to safety culture are over-confidence and the denial of small incidents to preserve the image of safety.