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Assist Missions on Knowledge Management for Nuclear Industry Operating Organizations
The nuclear industry is knowledge based, similar to other highly technical industries, and relies heavily on skilled employees and their know-how. Recent trends such as workforce ageing, declining student enrolment numbers, and the risk of losing accumulated knowledge and experience, have drawn attention to the need for better management of nuclear knowledge. These problems are exacerbated by the deregulation of energy markets around the world. The nuclear industry is now required to reduce its costs dramatically in order to compete with generators with different technology life cycle profiles. In many countries, government funding has been dramatically reduced or has disappeared altogether, while the profit margins of generators have been severely squeezed. The result has been lower electricity prices but also the loss of expertise as a result of downsizing to reduce salary costs, a loss of research facilities to reduce operating costs and a decline in support to universities to reduce overheads. The above factors have led to a reduction in technical innovation and a potential loss of technical competences, drawing the attention of all concerned parties to the need for effective strategies and policies for Nuclear Knowledge Management (NKM).
These issues have been recognized as being of key importance 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 sub programme on Nuclear Knowledge Management (C.3). The focus of the sub programme is on the development of guidance for NKM, on networking nuclear education and training and on the preservation of nuclear knowledge.
In 2005, the IAEA introduced the concept of Assist Missions on Knowledge Management for Nuclear Industry Operating Organizations. These were established to support sub programme C.3 and:
- Help organisations identify, by self-assessment, their own NKM maturity levels against a set of pre-defined criteria
- Assist organisations formulate detailed requirements and action plans related to NKM
- Facilitate the transfer of pragmatic NKM methodologies and tools
- Provide specific consultancy services to address emergent problems and long-term issues related to NKM and associated issues
The objectives of an Assist Mission on Knowledge Management for Nuclear Industry Operating Organization to:
- Provide assistance, education and consultancy to Counterparts who want to benefit from the application of best practice NKM techniques. Recognise good practice areas where NKM is already providing benefits.
- Make recommendations on how NKM shortcomings identified in the mission could be rectified or further activities implemented that would derive real business value for the Counterpart
- Produce a written End of Mission Report summarising the above
An assist NKM mission will therefore consider existing good practices and will recommend possible improvement options based on the collective experiences of the mission team members.
See also Nuclear Knowledge Management for Canadian Nuclear Power Plants