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D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology) / The Licensing Branch of the Atomic Energy Corporation of South Africa is responsible for setting safety standards as regards the nuclear energy industry. The present study forms part of an investigation, initiated by members of the Licensing Branch, into the impact and possible social risk of nuclear technology on society. The ultimate aim of the investigation, towards which this study intends to make a sound contribution, is the development of appropriate social risk criteria. Financial assistance by the Atomic Energy Corporation of South Africa is hereby acknowledged. Any views or conclusions are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the AEC. The financial assistance of the Human Sciences Research Council towards the costs of this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed or conclusions reached are those of the author and are not to be regarded as a reflection of the opinions and conclusions of the Human Sciences Research Council.

There is a lack of theoretically based, and empirically proven, team training methods for optimising and maintaining effective team performance. The aims of the thesis were to: (i) develop a method to carry out team training needs analyses, and use this to identify theoretically valid intervention techniques; (ii) develop and test a particular type of team training designed to improve team performance in high-reliability industries; and (iii) develop and utilise team training evaluation techniques. A team training needs analysis was carried out to identify the team training requirements of nuclear power plant operations personnel. This resulted in the design of a nuclear team skills taxonomy, in which the specific team competencies required by the team members were identified. Using this taxonomy it was possible to identify four training and three organisational interventions to improve the performance of the teams. The remainder of the thesis concentrated on the application of the most widely applied team training technique, Crew Resource Management (CRM) training. CRM has been used in the aviation industry for over 20 years, and is beginning to be applied in other high-reliability industries. However, a survey of UK aviation operators (n=l13) showed that the majority do not utilise formal evaluation techniques to assess the effects of their CRM training. The main reasons for this are a shortage of resources and a lack of guidance on suitable techniques for evaluating training. Several CRM evaluation techniques were developed and tested. A questionnaire was designed to assess the effects of CRM training on the attitudes of nuclear operations personnel. It was found there was generally an initial increase in the positivity of attitudes immediately after training, and then a decay in attitudes when they were measured again after a delay of six months. A prototype CRM training course was designed, and delivered to 77 offshore oild and gas production personnel Their reactions to the training were generally favourable and, as measured using a questionnaire, a significant increase in positivity of attitudes was found for decision making and personnel limitations, but not situation awareness or iii communications. The ability of the course participants to identify the causes of accidents in written scenarios was also not found to improve as a result of the CRM training. Finally, a European behavioural marker system designed to allow an assessment to be made of the non-technical (CRM) skills of flight deck crews (called NOTECHS) was tested. Data were provided from an experiment involving 105 training captains from 14 European airlines. Following an analysis of the validity and reliability, it was concluded that the NOTECHS system appears to be a satisfactory system for carrying out an evaluation of pilots' CRM behaviours in the aviation industry. The main findings of the thesis were: (i) A multi-faceted methodology was found to be useful in carrying out a training needs analysis, and to identify intervention techniques to improve team performance. However, these interventions must be applied and evaluated to assess their effectiveness. (ii) Researchers must take care when using a team training method, such as CRM, which has been successful utilised in one particular organisation, and applying the same model in another without first testing it in the new domain. (iii) There is a need to develop more reliable questionnaire items to assess attitudes to CRM skills such as decision making and situation awareness, and techniques to assess the CRM-related knowledge of participants. It is argued that properly designed and tested behavioural marker systems provide a method for evaluating the CRM skills of operations personnel, as long as the system is valid and reliable, and raters have received training to use it accurately. As industry becomes increasingly complex, there is a continuous challenge to design, deliver, and evaluate team training. Overall, this thesis has added to the research to address these challenges and indicated the areas in which further psychological research is required. It is only through this type of analysis that team training theory can develop and practitioners can be provided with the tools necessary to design effective team training.

This study looked at leadership development at top performing nuclear plants in the United States. The examination of leadership development as actually practiced in the nuclear energy industry lead to the development of a best practice model. The nuclear industry is self-regulated through the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations (INPO). INPO has been evaluating nuclear plants over the past 15 years. Recently they have identified supervisor performance as a key factor in poor plant performance. INPO created a model for leadership development called Growing Industry Leaders. The nuclear industry has identified its aging workforce and subsequent loss of leadership as an emerging issue facing the nuclear industry in the next five to ten years. This initiative was aimed at both the supervisor shortfalls identified through plant evaluations and the state of the workforce within the nuclear industry. This research evaluated the elements of this model and compared them to a model of best practice. This research answered the following questions: What elements of leadership development should be included in leadership development programs? What would a model of best practice in leadership development look like? Data was collected from nine out of 103 top performing plants. Development activities were categorized by a seven member panel of experts. These categories were then validated using three rounds of a Delphi process to reach consensus. This became the basis for the best practice model for leadership development.

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Thesis. 1978. M.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Political Science. / MIROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Bibliography: leaves 159-160. / M.S.

Within the nuclear industry there is an extensive need for evaluation of the safety of the plant. In such evaluations there is one phenomenon requiring some particular treatment, namely common cause failure (CCF). This involves the occurrences of components failing dependently, meaning failures that can overcome the applied redundancy or diversity. The impact of CCF is relatively large, but unfortunately the process of CCF analysis is complicated by the complex nature of CCF events and a very sparse availability of CCF data. Today, there are a number of methods for CCF analysis available with different characteristics, especially concerning their qualitative and quantitative features. The most common working procedure for CCF treatment is to divide the analysis in a qualitative and a quantitative part, but unfortunately the development of tools for the qualitative part has to a certain extent got behindhand. This subject is further explored in a comparative study focused on two totally different approaches for CCF analysis, the impact vector method and the unified partial method. Based on insights from this study an integrated impact vector and ‘Relations of Defences, Root causes and Coupling factors’ (RDRC) methodology is suggested to be further explored for progress towards a methodology incorporating both qualitative and quantitative aspects.

This study attempts to determine the factors which account for the fact that women are both more opposed and uncertain than men concerning the further development of nuclear energy. To that end, data from four national opinion surveys covering the period 1975-1979 are employed. Log-linear techniques are used in the analyses. Two plausible explanations for women's greater aversion to nuclear power are presented. The marginality explanation attributes the differential support of men and women for nuclear power to the differential positions which they occupy in the economic, political, and technical spheres within society. Because men hold more central positions in these areas, it is postulated that they will perceive a greater need for additional energy and continued economic growth, believe that the advantages of nuclear power toward these goals are greater, and be more confident in applications of nuclear technology. The fact that men express more favorable attitudes toward nuclear power is thus to be explained by these factors. The safety explanation attributes the sex difference to a greater concern on the part of women about the safety of using nuclear fission to generate electricity. The general thrust of this argument is that women's greater concern for safety revolves around their reproductive and nurturant roles, and the protection of future generations. Uncertainty is viewed as a special problem. An explanation for women's greater uncertainty, which attributes the difference to a sex-typed expectation concerning the formulation and expression of opinions on complex technical issues, is presented. Since children are socialized to view science and technology as primarily male fields, it is argued that the expectation to appear informed and provide opinions on technical topics like nuclear energy is less strong for women. The pattern of sex differences observed across a large number of survey items supports this view. With regard to the competing explanations for the sex difference in opposition to nuclear energy, the analyses support the safety rather than the marginality argment. Women are found to believe that nuclear power plants are less safe than men do, and to rate the problems of nuclear power as more serious. Controlling for these factors accounts for the sex difference in support for nuclear power, both in general and in respondents' local communities. Contrary to the implications of the marginality argument, women view our energy problems as more serious than men do, and there are virtually no sex differences with regard to the ratings given to various economic and other advantages of nuclear power. In line with the predictions of that argument, men are somewhat more likely to opt for producing energy over protecting the environment, and also more confident that the technical capability to rely more heavily on nuclear power currently exists. However, controlling for these factors fails to account for the sex difference. Additional topics addressed include the role of key opinion leadership groups in shaping the public opinion process concerning nuclear energy, and sex differences in reaction to the Three Mile Island accident. Women express greater confidence than men in environmentalists and Ralph Nader's organization, but no sex differences are found in confidence in scientists or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Hypothetical pro or con statements from each of these groups effect striking changes in the distribution of opinions of nuclear power. The magnitude of these changes in support vs. opposition is the same for both sexes. However, attaching the "expert opinion" results in a convergence of male and female uncertainty. Finally, the comparison of pre and post-TMI attitudes indicates a perception that the accident was more serious, and a greater increase in opposition to nuclear power among women.