Knowledge management for radioactive waste management organisations

Abstract

Starting in 2006, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) developed a guidance publication on knowledge management for radioactive waste management organisations. The publication is part of the IAEA Nuclear Energy Document Series at the level of Report. The purpose of the document was to provide guidance to the full range of decision makers (in both the public and private sectors) on planning, implementing and sustaining the critical nuclear and institutional knowledge needed for the safe and efficient management of radioactive waste. The guidance covers salient aspects of managing tacit, implicit and explicit knowledge, both in documented (record) form and as skills and experiences in human beings. It addresses information management, human resources, technical competence management, primary and continuing education, stakeholder involvement, management systems and approaches and knowledge analysis and integration. and radioactive waste management, treatment, storage and disposal facility decommissioning, modelling and engineering design analysis, nuclear facility safety and hazards analysis, nonreactor nuclear facility operations, hazardous waste site remediation, analytical quality assurance, statistical analysis, wastewater treatment design, groundwater modelling and extraction system design, site characterisation management and field experience in drilling and sampling of contaminated environmental media. He has worked primarily in the area of radioactive and mixed waste management (including work for the Los Alamos National Labs and Sandia National Laboratory) and performed similar work for major commercial clients such as British Petroleum and Westinghouse Nuclear Fuels. He is currently the Scientific Secretary for Waste Management Information Systems at the IAEA. Andrei Kosilov obtained his PhD in Nuclear Engineering at the Moscow Institute for Physics and Engineering (MIPhI), Russia. His particular areas of experience include knowledge management for nuclear industry, nuclear education, human resources development, configuration management, SAT-based training for NPP personnel, management of training document development, NPP instrumentation and control, human-machine interface issues, operator support systems for NPPs, control room systems design, computerisation of operations and maintenance of NPPs and development of web applications. His curriculum vitae contains around 80 publications in national and international journals or presented at international conferences; more than 40 IAEA technical reports have been developed under his supervision. In