Comparing ASEAN nuclear research reactor operating cultures for supporting multinational human reliability analysis

Five Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Nuclear Power Safety Research (NPSR) countries—Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines—have planned to develop a human reliability analysis (HRA) platform and methodology tailored for nuclear research reactors (NRRs). The inaugural HRA benchmark project measures and compares the operating culture profiles of ASEAN NRRs to establish cultural homogeneity using Hofstede's cultural indices while identifying distinctive working characteristics. Pearson's correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) serve as the primary statistical tools for interpreting the cultural profile survey data. The operator cultures of ASEAN NRRs exhibit trends similar to those observed in nuclear power plant operators and NRR user cultures, indicating potential for sharing HRA data to address safety concerns. Pearson's correlation reveals strong interrelations among the operating cultures of the seven NRRs, substantiating the viability of human performance data sharing across ASEAN NRRs. The PCA further elucidates variations in working characteristics among these reactors. The operating cultures of Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam exhibit higher power distance indices, greater individualism indices, lower masculinity, reduced uncertainty avoidance indices, and heightened long-term orientation indices compared to those observed in Indonesia. These findings suggest that ASEAN NRRs can enhance their operational cultures by adopting best practices and lessons learned from one another. Such improvements are critical for achieving the cultural objectives of the HRA platform and methodology development across the ASEAN region.