Training the Nuclear Leaders: The First IAEA Nuclear Energy Management School in Russia Emphasizes Development of Nuclear Knowledge Infrastructure

Not only lectures were included in the programme, but practical training as well, such as the unique NKM Business Simulation Game, where participants experienced on their own cost the need of knowledge preservation and sharing among nuclear industry stakeholders; and a group project called "Infrastructure Development" where the trainees were brainstorming solutions to overcome the main problems in development of nuclear infrastructure issues, such as national position, management, legal framework, regulatory framework and human resource development – the ones which more commonly have recommendations during the IAEA Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review missions according to the six years of experience in INIR (TECDOC No. 1779).

"The school was not just for training the participants on the technical side, but they trained us in the assessment of economic feasibility of a NPP project. I think this school gave a good presentation both from the theoretical point of view and from the practical point of view: the group working sessions on nuclear infrastructure development were good to build up our knowledge on how newcomer countries like Malaysia should plan for a nuclear power programme utilizing the IAEA milestone approach guidelines," said Jonathan TAN, Assistant Manager – Economist, Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation, Malaysia.

"This course was very useful especially for newcomer countries. The strong point of this course was the NKM business game simulation because it involved all of our skills and forced us to utilize them in hands-on sessions which closely approached real life situations where we are making decisions in a project," said Alim MARDHI – Researcher at Center for Reactor Technology and Nuclear Safety, BATAN, Indonesia.

Even though lectures and practical sessions are very important, the experience of visiting real industry facilities should not be underestimated. In this regard, several informative technical tours were organized during the School. The participants had an opportunity to visit the construction site of Leningrad NPP 2 (VVER-1200 reactors) including the reactor hall, turbine hall and the full-scope simulators of operating and constructed units. Also the trainees visited the Emergency Response Center of ROSATOM (St. Petersburg), the full-scope simulator of the Floating NPP "Akademik Lomonosov" and the Nuclear Industry Information Center (NIIC) in Saint Petersburg.