Following a year's preparation, the IAEA has handed over a methodology to China's Research Institute of Nuclear Power Operation (RINPO) to conduct its own knowledge management visits to Chinese nuclear power utilities.
The handover was completed at a training workshop that was conducted in Wuhan from 11 to 15 August 2014, focusing on the practical approaches of organizing and implementing the Knowledge Management Assist Visits (KMAV). Workshop participants adapted the IAEA KMAV methodology detailed in the IAEA's TECDOC-1586 that has been tailored to China's requirements and which also includes a self-assessment tool for Chinese nuclear power plants. They also reviewed the draft procedure for critical knowledge identification for China's National Nuclear Power Company (CNNP).
Prior to the workshop, the RINPO knowledge management team and representatives from nuclear power plants (NPP) - altogether 25 experts - underwent training through a Knowledge Management Pre-training Course under the IAEA's CLP4NET e-learning platform. CLP4NET stands for Cyber Learning Platform for Nuclear Education and Training. The experts also went through the self-assessment model of the pre-training course.
"We will conduct our pilot knowledge management assist visit using the IAEA methodology to Tianwan NPP in October 2014," said RINPO Vice President, Mr. Li Sujia.
Mr. Xie Bo, Supervisor of the CNNP's Planning and Developing Department, added: "In the next few years we would like to make further efforts to apply knowledge management at our nuclear power plants with the same effectiveness as we did with safety culture."
"Managing knowledge and experience is key to safe and sustainable operations," said Zoltan Pasztory from the IAEA Nuclear Knowledge Management Section. "We are happy that our methodology is getting wider acceptance and use."
This knowledge transfer initiative was enabled by Chinese extra-budgetary contributions and implemented through IAEA regional Technical Cooperation projects.
Background
The IAEA assists its Member States to maintain and preserve nuclear knowledge for peaceful purposes. Its Knowledge Management Assist Visits, launched in 2005, consider existing good practices and recommend improvement options based on the collective experiences of the mission team members. The IAEA has conducted such missions in many nuclear organizations spanning from nuclear power plants to research and development and nuclear education organizations and regulatory bodies around the world.
CLP4NET is an online platform that allows users to find educational resources easily and contains a learning environment to support instructor-led courses and disseminate e-learning self-study resources to a wider audience. The use of the platform is provided as a cost-free service to all of the IAEA and its cooperation partners.