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The Conference was attended by more than 256 participants from 62 Member States and 11 organizations. Mr. D. Torgerson of Canada was the Conference President, Messrs. Y. Yanev and T. Mazour of IAEA were the Scientific Secretaries.
These conference proceedings quote key statements and summarize all conference contributions. The attached CD-ROM contains in full unedited text and as pdf files all opening addresses, papers and presentation material shown at the conference for further reference. The conference was organized according to the following areas: Session 1: Opening In addition to the welcoming and introductory remarks from the Government of the UAE and the IAEA Deputy Director General for Nuclear Energy on the importance and timeliness for such a meeting in light of the large number of countries that have officially expressed interest in pursuing a peaceful and transparent nuclear power programme, including the recent announcement of a partner for one such newcomer country (the UAE), the keynote speakers invited for this session will provide their insight on the current status and challenges of HR for the nuclear industry and how they see the role of the key stakeholders – government, industry and academia – in providing the necessary support in developing and maintaining the human resources needed for the safe and sustainable introduction and expansion of nuclear power programmes, and the need for a global effort in this regard. The presentations will address the key objectives of the conference thereby setting the stage for the subsequent presentations of the conference. Panel Discussion on the Role of Cooperating Organizations in working together to address human resource challenges in the nuclear industry in a globalized world. The Head or delegated senior representative of the organizations co-operating with the IAEA on this Conference will make up a panel to discuss their roles in developing and maintaining the human resources needed to support the safe and sustainable introduction and expansion of nuclear power programmes. Session 2: Role of governments in establishing and maintaining human resources for a nuclear programme The speakers invited for this session will provide experiences, lessons learned and plans regarding their governments’ roles in developing and maintaining the human resources needed to support the safe and sustainable introduction and expansion of nuclear power programmes. The areas to be addressed include governments’ roles in education, recruitment, selection, training, qualification and retention of human resources to support nuclear power programmes. Emphasis will be on government’s roles in areas that are uniquely its responsibility, including: national education programmes, staffing and organization of competent regulatory bodies, and the authorization and required qualifications of nuclear industry personnel. Session 3: Role of education institutions in meeting the needs of industry for developing a global nuclear workforce, including engineers, scientists and skilled trades workers The speakers invited for this session will provide experiences, lessons learned and plans regarding how their educational institutions contribute to developing and maintaining the human resources needed to support the safe and sustainable introduction and expansion of nuclear power programmes. These presentations will focus on partnerships between educational institutions, governments, and industry to ensure that education programmes are consistent with industry needs and that the funding and other support for these programmes is suitable. In addition to these presentations, a Panel Discussion on Education Networks will provide information regarding mechanisms for effectively sharing information regarding educational curricula, materials and experiences, at national and international levels. Session 4: Role of industry – vendor and operator responsibility for education and training to fill the need for a competent workforce over the life cycle of nuclear power plants and other fuel cycle facilities The speakers invited for this session will provide experiences, lessons learned and plans regarding how industry develops and maintains the human resources needed to support the safe and sustainable introduction and expansion of nuclear power programmes. The areas to be emphasized will include industry’s roles and responsibilities regarding recruitment, selection, training, qualification and retention of human resources to support nuclear power programmes. Emphasis will be on how these organizations ensure that their personnel reach and maintain the high standards that are unique to the nuclear industry, their approaches to attracting and retaining a suitable workforce, and the partnerships they maintain with government, suppliers, educational institutes and other organizations. Session 5: New strategies for managing human resources in the 21st century The speakers invited for this session will provide experiences, lessons learned and plans regarding new strategies they have to develop the human resources needed to support the safe and sustainable introduction and expansion of nuclear power programmes. This session will begin with the lessons learned and plans of the host country, UAE, which is taking an approach toward organization and human resource development that, while it isn’t new to the UAE is a departure from that taken by those countries that already have NP programmes. Other presentations will explore new national and regional approaches toward HR development, as while they are provided by those organizations that have NP programmes they involve strategies that are new to the industry. Session 6: The knowledge transfer challenge – knowledge transfer to the new generation of workers; mechanisms for effective knowledge transfer from vendors and operators to ‘newcomers’ countries The speakers invited for this session will provide experiences and lessons learned regarding how their organizations capture, transfer and create knowledge critical to their organization’s missions, as well as to the nuclear field, particularly as related to ensuring the sustainability of new and expanding nuclear power programmes. Emphasis will be placed on initiatives towards addressing the demographic shift in the industry and plans on preserving and transferring critical nuclear knowledge to the new generation of workers, as well as among organizations responsible for initiating and expanding nuclear power programmes. In addition, mechanisms for effective knowledge transfer from vendors and operators to newcomer countries over the lifecycle of plants will be explored as well as the need for establishing a learning and sharing culture, both within individual organizations and in the nuclear field, and experience through communities of practice. This Session will also include a Panel discussion on the Role of IAEA in Knowledge Transfer. Panelists are expected to discuss the mechanisms in place within the various departments of the Agency towards capacity building in Member States. Non IAEA panelists are expected to offer their insight as per what they see as the role of the Agency in facilitating knowledge transfer and how it should be strengthened. Session 7: Making the nuclear field attractive for the next generations The speakers invited for this session all come from the generation that will provide the future leadership of the nuclear power field. They will provide their perspectives, on the challenges and opportunities they see for the nuclear field in being attractive to their peers, both those that will be employees of the future, as well as those that will be key stakeholders such as teachers and faculty in education organizations, government decision makers, and the leaders in local communities that are neighbours of nuclear facilities. This Session will also include a Panel discussion on Improving the Representation of Women in the Nuclear Power Industry. The panel is composed of women and men from different industries (university, commercial and governmental organizations) who will provide their insight on the current reality of women in the nuclear workforce and share ideas on how to preserve and strengthen their role to benefit the whole workforce. Global Initiative to Quantify HR Needs This session will provide participants with information regarding those initiatives underway and planned to provide a better global understanding of the availability and needs for HR to implement the planned expansion and introduction of nuclear power programmes in the near future. This initiative is a partnership among the principal international organizations that support nuclear power. These organizations acknowledge that they do not have a comprehensive answer to the question: “Are current plans and approaches sufficient to provide the HR needed to support the planned global expansion of NP?”The goal of this initiative is to better understand if there are sufficient human resources being developed to support the expected global growth in nuclear power, with the following objectives: 1. For those countries with existing nuclear power programmes, provide decision makers with information upon which to improve planning for their nuclear industry workforce and to benchmark their efforts. 2. For those countries considering nuclear power, to improve their understanding of the approaches they need to have in order to develop human resources for a sustainable NP programme. 3. To provide international organizations with information to better serve their stakeholders.
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The opinions expressed in this publication – and any recommendations made – are those of the speakers and participants and do not necessarily represent the views of the IAEA or its Member States.