The Human Element in Nuclear Safety

Authors

Daniel Vincent Gascon

Files

Description

2025 ASEM 620 Capstone Project

Publication Date

4-16-2025

Publisher

University of Alabama at Birmingham

City

Birmingham, AL

Keywords

safety engineering

Disciplines

Engineering

Comments

We live in a time when technology has advanced significantly since nuclear reactors were developed in the mid-20th century. In the modern era, nuclear energy powers roughly 11% of the world’s infrastructure. With the high consequences of harnessing nuclear power, the importance of following the procedure to the letter is unquestioned. However, a quote by Astronaut Karol Joseph ‘Bo’ Bobko expressed that “the fastest way to get yourself killed on a manned space flight is to not follow the Standard Operating Procedures. The second fastest way to get yourself killed is to always follow the Standard Operating Procedures,” (ANSI, 2019, p.19). This capstone aims to understand the key differences in safety culture between civilian and military environments, develop new proactive safety initiatives, and improve human interaction within high-reliability and complex systems in both civilian and military settings. It will also review previous nuclear accidents, such as the Fukushima Daiichi, and US Navy Submarine losses, such as the USS Miami incident. This capstone’s ultimate objective is to shift safety culture into a positive and resilient method, rather than being seen as a checkmark for system engineering requirements. Incorporating a proactive and just safety culture from the inception of system design in complex or simple systems will influence how the system behaves overall and how people react to unexpected events within the life cycle.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Gascon, Daniel Vincent, "The Human Element in Nuclear Safety" (2025). ASEM Capstones. 3.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/asem/3