In April, the Center for Nuclear Security Science and Policy Initiatives (NSSPI) hosted the School of Nuclear Knowledge Management for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the campus of Texas A&M University. The week-long school focused on specialized education and training in the development and implementation of nuclear knowledge management programs in nuclear science and technology organizations. It was intended for young professionals in current or future leading roles in managing nuclear knowledge. The school was led by IAEA experts in the field, John Roberts, Gary Cairns, and Dobrica Savic, as well as local expert practitioner John Crenshaw, who provided real-life examples, best practices, and lessons learned from the perspective of nuclear organizations in the US.
Five graduate students from the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M participated in the course, along with young nuclear professionals from Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, Malaysia, Nigeria, Peru, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
The School explored various dimensions of nuclear knowledge management, such as processes and tools, challenges and benefits, the influence of organizational culture, the relationship with human resource development, and the use of information technology for knowledge preservation and sharing.
Participants were also able to tour the TRIGA research reactor at the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Nuclear Engineering and Science Center and the National Center for Electron Beam Research, which is an IAEA collaborating center and part of Texas A&M AgriLife.