Assessing the goodness of the concept of institutional strength-in-depth

Assessing the goodness of the concept of institutional strength-in-depth (ISiD), the objective of the chapter is to examine the new concept of ISiD, launched by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) International Expert Group in 2017. The ISiD refers to a network of institutions, such as governments, industry, and regulatory body, that is, core organizations in the nuclear field, each of which forms an independent safety layer that is further strengthened by multiple internal barriers. The goal of the ISiD is a robust national nuclear safety system. Each organization and interfaces between them assure that the safety standards are efficiently applied. The ISiD borrows ideas from the philosophy of defense-in-depth. The power of ISiD concept derives from the fact that the IAEA will develop formal ISiD guidelines. Therefore it needs to be taken seriously by the actors in the nuclear field. However, the concept itself is criticized for not being scientific. Therefore the objective of the chapter is to evaluate the goodness of the concept of ISiD itself by looking at the attributes it includes and their consistency and its utility. The conceptual strength of the ISiD is analyzed based on eight criteria: (1) familiarity, (2) resonance, (3) parsimony, (4) coherence, (5) differentiation, (6) depth, (7) theoretical utility, and (8) field of utility.