A framework for incorporating best practices at nuclear power plants

In ethnographic fieldwork at nuclear power plants in the USA and Germany, the authors observed that capturing the context in which a practice is developed is crucial to preserving its essence and enhancing its transferability. They formalized the concept of context and concluded that the context of a best practice can be captured by recording its underlying rationale in a deliberation- or process-oriented (vs. an artifact- or outcome-oriented) mode. They adapted an existing computer-based decision management system to capture the knowledge that goes into conceiving, designing, and implementing a practice. The main assumption is that while the context is different from plant to plant, the nature of the process in which practices are developed or adapted is the same. The representation of the system is based on invariants of this process, and is thus able to provide a uniform, seamless environment ideally suited for the transfer of useful knowledge for the development or implementation of best practices. Using context-rich data from the nuclear power plants visited, the approach was tested by simulating the development and transfer of a best practice.<>