TVO’s goals are to guarantee its employees, contractors and service providers a safe workplace and operating environment, as well as to verify that standardised operating methods are used in the Group’s operating area.
The occupational health and safety operations are governed by a certified occupational health and safety system (OHS system) compliant with OHSAS 18001. It also covers TVO’s share of the OL3 construction site operations. Work to renew the OHS system to make it compliant with ISO 45001 was started in 2018. The plan is also to merge the OHS systems of TVO and Posiva.
Mission of the occupational health and safety organization is: The line organization identifies and monitors their own OHS responsibilities and independently handles OHS issues. The OHS organization is an expert organization that supports, supervises, and develops occupational health and safety operations, as well as assists the line organization.
Reports on functionality of the OHS system and the required corrective measures are submitted to the management twice a year in connection with management reviews. Development of the operations is supported by annually set OHS targets.
The occupational health and safety policy is included in the group-level policy under social responsibility. The starting points for the occupational health and safety policy are zero accidents, maintenance of a good atmosphere at work and habitability, as well as zero tolerance in terms of workplace harassment or bullying.
All persons working at the Olkiluoto site must complete the occupational health and safety card training, and it is a prerequisite for receiving an access permit. According to the zero accidents goal, all accidents can be prevented by properly planning the work, by proactively identifying risks and by performing the work in a high-quality manner.
OHS cooperation across organisational borders
The occupational health and safety operations are coordinated by the OHS experts in the competence centre’s fire, environment and OHS team. Furthermore, personnel groups (employees and officials) have named industrial safety delegates and deputy delegates from amongst themselves. There is an Olkiluoto OHS team consisting of OHS experts, industrial safety delegates, representatives of the different business functions and units, as well as representatives of occupational healthcare services. The comprehensive assembly of the team ensures that the team is representative of the entire personnel.
Senior management of the company reviews functionality of the OHS system twice a year. The management sets company-level OHS goals. The management OHS representative in the Management Team is the head of the Security business. Once a month, the management performs a safety walkdown of an agreed site. Observations made during the walkdowns are entered in the electronic quality management system for further actions. The development of OHS issues is also monitored by the company’s Board of Directors.
The goal set for 2018 was decreasing the combined accident frequency at Olkiluoto from the previous year’s target level of 20%, which means 3.2 or fewer accidents per one million working hours. This goal applies to employees of TVO, Posiva and subcontractors working at Olkiluoto.
| Accident frequency at Olkiluoto (not CFS) < 3.2 | Monthly cumulative accident frequency
monitoring for previous 12 months | 3.6 |
OHS goals were determined during the planning of the OHS organisation’s operations. They aim to influence the goal set by the Group. The main themes in 2018 were the use of personal protective equipment at Olkiluoto, support of supervisors’ safety-oriented work and development of risk assessments and risk management.
The number of accidents resulting in absence among TVO’s own personnel was three during the year, the accident frequency being 2.1 accidents per one million working hours. The total number of absence days due to accidents was 81. Two commuting accidents resulting in absence took place during the year. All the accidents resulting in absences were investigated and corrective actions were specified to prevent reoccurrence of the accidents.
Employees of TVO’s subcontractors in Olkiluoto had six accidents resulting in absences, the accident frequency being 4.4 (2017: 9.5) accidents per one million working hours. The total number of absence days of subcontractor employees due to accidents was 24 (2017: 216). Nine accidents resulting in absences took place at the OL3 construction site.
The combined accident frequency at Olkiluoto was 3.6. This figure includes TVO’s employees, Posiva’s employees and the employees of all the subcontractors who worked at Olkiluoto, excluding the OL3 construction site, the statistics of which are reported by the AREVA-Siemens consortium.
The management of the company specified goals for 2019 in connection with its strategy planning. OHS is included in the planning of the safety strategy. The company-level goal was set as decreasing the combined accident frequency at Olkiluoto to 3.2 or fewer accidents per one million working hours.
Careful investigations and instructions will prevent future accidents
Reporting all observed hazardous situations assists in the prevention of accidents. The investigation of hazardous situations and implementation of corrective actions aim to prevent the reoccurrence of the events. In addition to slipping and stumbling, the most common accident type at Olkiluoto in 2018 was a burn caused by a short circuit.
The supervisor of an employee involved in an accident initiates the accident investigation together with the occupational health and safety organisation. A report of all accident investigations is submitted to the line management. The line management is then responsible for processing the report in each of the organisations and verifying that corrective actions are implemented. The safety level of all ongoing construction sites is monitored by means of weekly TR measuring rounds.
