Nuclear Knowledge to the Next Generation
The safe, reliable, and cost-effective operation of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) requires that personnel possess and maintain the requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes to do their jobs properly. Such knowledge includes not only the technical competencies required by the nature of the technology and particular engineering designs, but also the softer competencies associated with effective management, communication and teamwork. Recent studies have shown that there has been a loss of corporate knowledge and memory. Both explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge must be passed on to the next generation of workers in the industry to ensure a quality workforce. New and different techniques may be required to ensure timely and effective knowledge retention and transfer. The IAEA prepared a report on this subject. The main conclusions from the report regarding strategies for managing the aging workforce are included. Also included are main conclusions from the report regarding the capture an d preservation of mission critical knowledge, and the effective transfer of this knowledge to the next generation of NPP personnel. The nuclear industry due to its need for well-documented procedures, specifications, design basis, safety analyses, etc., has a greater fraction of its mission critical knowledge as explicit knowledge than do many other industries. This facilitates the task of knowledge transfer. For older plants in particular, there may be a need for additional efforts to transfer tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge to support major strategic initiatives such as plant license extensions/renewals, periodic safety reviews, major plant upgrades, and plant specific control room simulator development. The challenge in disseminating explicit knowledge is to make employees aware that it is available and provide easy access in formats and forms that are usable. Tacit knowledge is more difficult to identify and disseminate. The challenge is to identify what can be converted to explicit knowledge and to create an environment where tacit knowledge is routinely shared and disseminated. Many NPP operating organizations have taken positive and decisive steps to address the aging workforce situation. A number of these actions are described in the report.
- Research Organization:
- International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (AT)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- none (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 827926
- Journal Information:
- Nuclear Plant Journal, Journal Name: Nuclear Plant Journal Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 22; ISSN 0892-2055
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
AGING
ATTITUDES
COMMUNICATIONS
CONTROL ROOMS
DESIGN
HUMAN FACTORS
IAEA
MANAGEMENT
NUCLEAR INDUSTRY
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS: TRAINING: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
PERSONNEL
PRESERVATION
RETENTION
SAFETY
SIMULATORS
SPECIFICATIONS