About Nuclear Knowledge Management (NKM)

Nuclear Knowledge Management (NKM) has become an increasingly important element of the nuclear sector in recent years, resulting from a number of challenges and trends:

Countries with expanding nuclear programmes require skilled and trained human resources to design and operate future nuclear installations. Capacity building through training and education and transferring knowledge from centres of knowledge to centres of growth are key issues.
In countries with stagnating nuclear programmes, the challenge is to secure the human resources needed to sustain the safe operation of existing installations, including their decommissioning and related programmes for spent fuel and waste. Replacing retiring staff and attracting the young generation to a career in the nuclear field are key challenges.
Non-power applications of nuclear technologies require a stable or even growing base of nuclear knowledge and trained human resources, be it for cancer treatment or for food and agriculture. This need is present in all Member States using nuclear technologies, independent of the use of nuclear power.
Networking education and training and working on mutually accepted curricula can make studying nuclear subjects more attractive, facilitate exchange of human resources and contribute to the development of educational quality benchmarks.
The scientific and technical heritage of several decades of nuclear development, existing in a decentralized manner in many Member States with mature nuclear programmes, requires to be assessed, and valuable knowledge needs to be preserved for future use.
Access to existing nuclear knowledge can be improved in many cases, and sharing and pooling knowledge can contribute to development and innovation.

These developments have been recognized as being of key importance also for the Agency, and the General Conference of the IAEA has adopted resolutions on Nuclear Knowledge that request the Agency to develop corresponding activities. The first resolution, adopted in 2002 was reiterated in 2004 and in 2005; in the Programme & Budget cycle 2006–2007, the Agency is implementing a special subprogramme on Nuclear Knowledge Management (C.3). The focus of the subprogramme is on the development of guidance for NKM, on networking nuclear education and training and on the preservation of nuclear knowledge.

Last Updated: 17-Dec-2007