Nuclear organization
Definition
An organization that requires nuclear knowledge in order to achieve its goals
Description
There are 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 organizations 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] INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, Handbook on Nuclear Law, IAEA, Vienna (2003)
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