Browse by: "J"

System resilience is the ability for complex, dynamic-adaptive socio-technical systems to absorb and rebound from trauma or stress, and to avoid “jousting with dragons” where results are uncertain and often fatal. In a safety context, the term “dragons” originates from Professor David Woods at Ohio State University and the relatively new field of Resilience Engineering.
Dragons are an illustration for the consequence of “surprise” as depicted in ancient seafarer maps that filled the seas beyond the known boundaries of the ancient world with fire-breathing dragons, and certain death. In a modern day sense, dragons represent the unintended, and often unforeseen and unpredictable, consequences of crossing operational boundaries that are difficult to identify precisely, are often influenced by various actors, and are continually changing. In particular, due to the complex, dynamic-adaptive behaviour of systems, classic statistical metrics used in current Safety Management Systems (SMS) no longer allow us to predict the next undesired event. We need to change our focus and find new ways of capturing the faint signals of impending failure. This will require structural, psychological and social changes in the way SMSs work. In this paper, the issues of understanding and managing complex, dynamic-adaptive systems through the quality of resilience, and how to avoid “jousting with dragons” in the transport sector using a Resilience Engineering lens are addressed.

The installation of final repositories for nuclear waste has been a most controversial topic on the German political agenda for decades. The beginning of efforts to solve this problem can be traced back to the 1970s when plans for the establishment of an Integrated Nuclear Waste Disposal Centre (Integriertes Entsorgungszentrum) in the State of Lower Saxony were developed. It was in this context that in 1976,1 the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) of 19592 (the 2002 consolidated text is reproduced in Supplement to Nuclear Law Bulletin No. 70) was amended by inserting Section 9a, paragraph 3, sentence 1, which reads very succinctly: “The Federation shall establish installations for the safekeeping and final disposal of radioactive waste.” Despite the subsequent AEA amendments of Section 9a, paragraph 3 and the addition of a paragraph 4 (1998)3 that were to allow the Federation to transfer the exercise of its functions to third parties, these administrative provisions were never used. Accordingly, full responsibility of the Federation for the fulfilment of its obligation under Section 9a, paragraph 3 of the AEA remains intact today.