Nuclear knowledge management
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Definition
Nuclear knowledge management is Knowledge management in the nuclear domain Source: Knowledge management for radioactive waste management organisations
Nuclear knowledge management is Template:Nuclear knowledge management 4 Source: Process oriented knowledge management
Summary
One paragraph summary which summarises the main ideas of the article.
Description
Nuclear knowledge management is an integrated, systematic approach applied to all stages of the nuclear knowledge cycle. It impacts on human resources, information and communication technology, process and document management systems. Thus, corporate and national strategies relating to radioactive waste management can be significantly influenced by our ability to manage knowledge both now and in the future. Nuclear knowledge management is not just useful — it is essential. Further discussion of the need for nuclear knowledge management can be found in related IAEA publications (for example Ref. [8]).
Source: Knowledge management for radioactive waste management organisations
Description
NPPs operate in a highly regulated environment with stringent requirements. Effective management systems must be in place to ensure compliance with a number of regulatory and operating licence requirements including, for example: nuclear safety, environmental controls, equipment reliability and qualification, nuclear quality assurance, nuclear security, nuclear waste management and safeguards, radiation protection and monitoring, operating experience feedback and corrective action programmes, work management and control, outage planning and management, and design basis configuration management. All of these are knowledge intensive processes that involve knowledge management considerations. Knowledge management in the NPP context presents many challenges and issues and these stem from many factors such as:
- A complex technology base and infrastructure;
- Lengthy technology and plant life-cycles;
- Highly capital-intensive plant assets;
- A reliance on multi-disciplinary technologies and expertise;
- Competing operational objectives (i.e. safety, economics, and production);
- Potentially high hazards that must be systematically managed to demonstrably low tolerable risks; and
- An organization that is a complex socio-technical system.
There is an on-going need in NPPs for coordination and alignment of often inter-dependent knowledge processes. There is also a frequent need for risk-informed technical decision making, both from a design basis management perspective and from an operations and maintenance perspective. Nuclear plant organizations are heavily knowledge-dependent and their operational needs demand a high level of expertise and knowledge-based infrastructure. Knowledge is embedded in humans, the underlying plant technology, and work processes and methodologies. The terms ‘knowledge-worker' and ‘knowledge organization’ are all the more relevant to the multi-disciplinary environment of NPP organizations. For these reasons, NPP managers are interested in understanding and influencing the factors that affect not only the building and retention of the corporate knowledge base, but its effective utilization. The KM issues and priorities will vary in each NPP organization and this will depend on both internal organizational factors, and factors such as the national industry and infrastructure issues.
Many NPPs have started to manage knowledge and knowledge processes on a corporate-wide level as part of an integrated strategic KM programme. There are many reasons for this trend. For example, as existing plants have aged, there have been many hard lessons learned about the need for accurate maintenance of plant design basis information to ensure the continued safe and economic operation of each NPP (i.e. this information must be kept up to date, accurate and correct). Another reason is that many NPPs are under pressure to achieve improvements in economics, and this is driven by factors such as ownership consolidation and fleet management, deregulation and competition, rising operating costs, and opportunities arising from new technology. As a result, some plants are reducing staff by outsourcing more maintenance and design services, and this creates additional risks and dependencies on outside firms to maintain essential knowledge.
There are also several reasons why KM issues may become a priority in nuclear organizations. For example, in some Member States, the nuclear industry is a maturing industry and NPPs are experiencing high attrition rates due to retirements. This has highlighted their vulnerability to the loss of experts and their highly specialized and (difficult to replace) knowledge. In other Member States, there are aggressive plans underway for new builds and critical skills shortages have become a problem. Some Member States are experiencing both problems simultaneously, and further, need to staff upcoming refurbishment or decommissioning projects. Finally, there is concern in the industry over the ‘pipeline’ of adequately skilled new graduates due to the lack of university level nuclear engineering and science programmes. It takes typically months of formal in-house training and many more years of on-the-job training to build up the competencies and experience needed for many specialized NPP staff roles. Any of these factors may contribute to a shortage of critical technical competencies in nuclear organizations and may have a direct impact on safety, production, and economics. Pro-active measures aimed at knowledge building, retention and transfer have been needed.
References
[1]
