Would-be presenters have until 31 March to submit their papers to participate in the Third International Conference on Nuclear Knowledge Management to be held at the IAEA in Vienna 7-11 November 2016.
Nuclear knowledge management has become increasingly important for the nuclear sector in recent years: the previous generation of nuclear personnel is gradually retiring; many countries are expanding and developing their nuclear programmes; ageing nuclear installations may face complex technical challenges to ensure they can be maintained and operated safely; and there is a growing need for long-term management of radioactive waste and to plan decommissioning, including in countries phasing out nuclear programmes.?
“Effective knowledge management throughout the long life cycles involved in nuclear technologies and facilities is at the core of safe, efficient and sustainable operation in the nuclear sector,” said John de Grosbois, Head of the Nuclear Knowledge Management Section at the IAEA.
With a focus on the challenges and approaches to managing nuclear knowledge, the conference will provide a forum for managers, decision makers and knowledge management specialists from across the sector to discuss how to build, collect, transfer, share, maintain, preserve and utilize nuclear knowledge throughout the nuclear life-cycle.
“It is important for us to ensure that we interact with vendors, utilities, regulators and other consultants to develop and update our knowledge management practice,” said Nawal Prinja, Technical Director at engineering consultancy Amec Foster Wheeler.
The IAEA is uniquely placed to hold this conference, said Juan Galan, Head of the Computer Program Service at the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. “Only the IAEA can collect various experiences in a large number of countries and related to very different situations,” he said. “The conference will help to better identify the areas to develop in the future.”
The themes of the conference include: managing knowledge for new-build projects and programmes, for operating nuclear facilities, for decommissioning and environmental remediation projects, for nuclear regulatory compliance, for non-power nuclear science and applications, and nuclear research and development. Issues and approaches for information and records management will also be addressed.
The last IAEA conference on nuclear knowledge management took place in 2007 at the IAEA’s headquarters in Vienna. The upcoming event will also build on the outcomes of the most recent IAEA conference on human resource development, held in 2014.
For more information on the event and on how to submit short-format papers by 31 March, see the conference website.