Technical Meeting on Establishing, Developing and Maintaining Capacity Building in Member States
Vienna, Austria
17-20 April 2012
Conference ID:
43884
(J5-TM-43884)
ANNOUNCEMENT
Background information:
The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has sharply increased focus on the need for developing, strengthening, maintaining and implementing the capacity building programmes of Member States with nuclear power programmes and those planning to embark on such programmes for the first time. This was highlighted at the IAEA Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety held from 21 to 24 June 2011. The Ministerial Declaration adopted by the Conference requested the IAEA’s Director General to prepare a draft Action Plan on Nuclear Safety. The Action Plan was prepared by the IAEA Secretariat in consultation with Member States and was approved by the Board of Governors and endorsed by the General Conference at its 55th regular session in September 2011.
The purpose of the Action Plan is to define a programme of work to strengthen the global nuclear safety framework. The Action Plan has proposed 12 main actions, each with corresponding sub-actions. One of the actions in the Action Plan is headed “Capacity Building”. This action requires Member States with nuclear power programmes and those planning to introduce nuclear power for the first time to strengthen, develop, maintain and implement their capacity building programmes.
In order to provide guidance to its Member States, the IAEA has prepared a document entitled “Guidance and Methodology for Assessment of Capacity Building in Member States with Nuclear Power Programmes and Those Planning to Embark on such a Programme”. This document proposes a self-assessment methodology which Member States with a nuclear power programme and those planning to embark on such programmes can use to assess their present arrangements and identify actual or potential gaps in their capacity building endeavours. Member States can then take actions to close the gaps identified through the self-assessment. Sharing these results with the IAEA, as requested by the Action Plan, will then better enable the IAEA to prioritize its capacity building support to Member States.
The Technical Meeting will help in reviewing this document, as well as providing an opportunity for Member States to test this methodology and questionnaire for the self-assessment of their capacity building activities.
The IAEA will continue to support the capacity building efforts in Member States with targeted programmes in the areas of human resources development, knowledge management, knowledge networks and education and training.
Objectives:
The objectives of the meeting are to:
- Provide IAEA Member States with a methodology and a self-assessment questionnaire that will enable them to conduct self-assessment of their capacity building activities;
- Discuss the proposed methodology for the self-assessment of capacity building by Member States and to receive feedback on this;
- Provide an opportunity for Member States to ‘test’ the methodology in practice;
- Finalize a guidance document on capacity building in Member State; and
-Provide additional guidance for the implementation of the capacity building action included in the IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety.
Language:
The meeting will be conducted in English (no interpretation will be provided).
Target countries:
The meeting is open to senior officials from Member States with nuclear power plants and those that are considering embarking on nuclear power programmes for the first time.
Output of the meeting:
The expected outputs of the meeting are:
- A meeting report summarizing the key factors that should be considered for capacity building in Member States;
- Endorsement of the methodology and questionnaire for self-assessment of capacity building activities in Member States;
- A CD-ROM of the Technical Meeting outputs, including presentations and reports of the working groups.
Participants:
This Technical Meeting is intended for senior officials from governments, nuclear energy programme implementing organizations (NEPIOs), regulatory bodies, operating organizations and technical support organizations (TSOs) with experience in the areas of human resources development, knowledge management, knowledge network and education and training.
Expenditure:
The costs of the Technical Meeting are borne by the IAEA; no registration fee is charged to participants. Owing to budgetary constraints, the IAEA is not in a position to bear the travel and other costs of nominated participants in this meeting. Limited funds may, however, be available to help cover the cost of participants from Member States eligible to receive technical assistance under the IAEA’s technical cooperation programme. Such assistance may be offered, upon specific request, to one participant per country, provided that, in the IAEA’s view, this participant will make an important contribution to the meeting. The application for financial support should be made at the time of nominating the participant.
Application procedure:
Nominations should be submitted using the attached Participation Form. Completed forms should be endorsed by and returned through the official channels. They must be received by the IAEA not later than 9 March 2012. Nominations received after that date or applications sent directly by individuals or by private institutions cannot be considered. Nominating Governments will be informed in due course of the names of the selected candidates and at that time full details will be given on the procedures to be followed with regard to administrative and financial matters. For Member States receiving technical cooperation assistance, applications for financial support should be made at the time of nominating the participant. This application should be submitted using the Nomination Form available from the IAEA’s website (http://www-tc.iaea.org/tcweb/participation/inmeetings/default.asp).
This meeting will be listed in the IAEA’s Meetings and Conferences web pages (http://www-pub.iaea.org/iaeameetings/) in order to give it wider publicity.
Local arrangements:
The Technical Meeting will be held in room K of the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) in Vienna, Austria, and will start on Tuesday, 17 April 2012 at 9.30 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. on Friday, 20 April 2012. Participants are kindly requested to be at Checkpoint 1/Gate 1 of the Vienna International Centre (VIC) at least half an hour before the meeting starts to allow adequate time for photo badges to be issued. Participants should bring some form of personal identification, such as a national passport, in order to identify themselves to the Security Officers at Checkpoint 1.
The Technical Meeting agenda and local details, together with information on local arrangements, will be sent to designated participants when the completed participation forms have been received.
IAEA Secretariat:
Mr Shahid Mallick
Safety and Security Coordination Section
Department of Nuclear Safety and Security
International Atomic Energy Agency
Tel.: +43-1-2600 25673
Email: S.Mallick@iaea.org
Mr Brian Molloy
Nuclear Power Engineering Section
Department of Nuclear Energy
International Atomic Energy Agency
Tel.: +43-1-2600 22793
Email: B.Molloy@iaea.org
Mr Zoltan Pasztory
Nuclear Knowledge Management Section
Department of Nuclear Energy
International Atomic Energy Agency
Tel.: +43-1-2600 26739
Email: Z.Pasztory@iaea.org
General postal address:
International Atomic Energy Agency
Vienna International Centre
PO Box 100
1400 Vienna
AUSTRIA
Fax: +43-1-26007
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