The main goal of IBERDROLA, amongst others, is to become a leading company in electric power generation while maintaining an exemplary commitment to safety, reliability and environmental protection.

The concept of safety upheld by IBERDROLA integrates all safety-related concerns, including nuclear safety, radiological protection, security of facilities and nuclear material, and the prevention of occupational risks, and is based on a “continuous improvement cycle” applicable to all management areas (safety, security, environment, economics, etc).

In line with this commitment, IBERDROLA has implemented diverse corporate policies, including Occupational Risk Prevention [PDF], Quality [PDF] and Corporate Social Responsibility [PDF]. These policies define commitments and principles, amongst which are: the integration of criteria related with occupational safety and health in all phases of the production cycle, all working methodologies and all organizational levels; compliance with legislation in force in the countries in which it operates, and the promotion of a culture of continuous improvement with regard to products and the management of business processes, adopting, in addition, better practices and international standards and directives when an adequate legal framework is inexistent, and with the continuous aspiration for Excellence in all our activities.

IBERDROLA has also defined an Environmental Policy [PDF] that establishes adequate management systems that contribute toward the reduction of risks and minimization of adverse effects on the environment.

These principles reflect its commitment to the management of nuclear safety by developing the following basic lines of action:

• Granting safety overriding priority over any other aspect (economic, production or programmatic constraints).
• Applying the most rigorous and prudent criteria during deliberations of the nuclear safety committees when conflicts of interpretation or interests arise.
• Maintaining a long term vision by, among others, setting the most demanding mid-long term objectives based on the continuous-improvement effort and the international best practices, which means:
  • Assuring full compliance with applicable required regulations and license conditions.
  • Adopting voluntary international standards which can help with business management enhancements and public recognition.
  • Emulating appropriate good and best practices with the aim of looking for specific solutions and improvements.
  • Striving for excellence in the operations of IBERDROLA nuclear power plants helping others to do the same.
• Implementing a series of indicators based on international best practices and allotting the necessary resources for fulfilling the goals, annually set, in close relation to the objectives. Within the safety indicators established and followed periodically by IBERDROLA, there are the unscheduled outages, reportable events, safety evaluations and analyses, and exposure to radiation by both workers and the general public. The aims for these indicators are: minimizing the likelihood of unscheduled outages and events, utilizing safety evaluations and analysis to reduce risks as much as reasonable, and optimizing radiation exposure of workers and the public by continual implementation of the ALARA principle (as low as reasonably achievable). In case any goal remains unfulfilled in a given year, tendencies and causes will be analyzed, preventive and corrective actions established and the affected indicators reviewed to set new appropriate goals.
• Optimizing radiation protection of workers and the public by continual implementation of the ALARA principle (as low as reasonably achievable). This principle can be stated as the process or method used to make a system of protection as effective as possible within the given criteria and constraints by considering how best to use resources in reducing radiation risks to individuals and populations as far as is reasonably achievable, social and economic factors being taken into account. For IBERDROLA this is materialized in the ALARA Program, which results in:
  • Individual doses, number of persons exposed and probability of potential exposures are kept to the lowest minimum as reasonably feasible, taking into account socioeconomic factors.
  • The mode, magnitude and duration of interventions are optimized so that the results obtained from these are the best possible.
• Providing personnel with training.
• Applying approved written procedures to operations.
• Promoting the exemplary conduct of personnel.
• Sharing operating experience with WANO and INPO members and through all IBERDROLA nuclear fleet.
• Developing organizational learning and innovation.

Risk, understood as the probability of an event occurring in accordance with its consequences, is controlled, limited and minimized by fostering behaviour linked to a safety culture and the use of tools related to human factors, such as self-checks, three-way communications, on-site supervision, or independent verifications. These basic action lines are applied to safety, which IBERDROLA manages in compliance with all applicable legislation, paying particular attention to EU regulations, and when possible, being even more demanding in the voluntary definition of additional criteria for action. This means for instance that probabilistic safety assessments are extensively used not only to verify the standards compliance but also to improve as much as reasonably the global results by identifying areas for improvement through the most advanced techniques of “risk informed applications”. This powerful analytic tool, the probabilistic safety assessment, is developed, maintained and updated according to the state of the art.

Probabilistic safety assessment results for different designs will be used as one of the important criterion for technology selection on new builds.

Security, understood as the protection of the facility and the nuclear material against wilful acts or unintended uses, is a key prerequisite for IBERDROLA in the nuclear safety arena and is therefore managed with the same principles as the reactor safety, while keeping the necessary confidentiality precautions. So, our aim is not only legal compliance but also aspire to Excellence applying continuous improvement cycle and international best practices.