Professional subcultures in nuclear power plants

•The study explores plant safety cultures vs. professional safety subcultures at three nuclear power plants.•Differences between power plants and differences between departments were found for several factors.•Overall, the differences between departments were larger than those between power plants.

Using a safety climate survey as the point of departure, the present study explores some aspects of plant cultures vs. professional subcultures in three Swedish nuclear power plants (named A, B and C). The ratings on the safety climate survey by workers on power plant A were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis. A six-factor solution explained a total of 56.0% of the variance in the items included. The six factors were considered to measure Safety management, Change management and experience feedback, Immediate working group, Knowledge and participation, Occupational safety, and Resources. The six factor model was tested by running a confirmatory factor analysis on the ratings by workers on power plant B and C, respectively. The model fit for both plants was acceptable and supported the six factor structure. For each of the six factors, a 3 × 3 ANOVA was conducted on the ratings, with the three largest departments (Operation, Maintenance, Engineering support) and power plants (A, B, C) as the between-subjects factors. Differences between power plants as well as differences between departments were found for several factors. Overall, the differences between departments were larger than those between power plants. The results are discussed in terms of challenges for creating safety climate in organizations that harbor several professional subcultures.