Training and Tutoring for experts of the NRA and their Technical Safety Organisations for developing and strenghtening their regulatory and technical capabilities.

The overall objective of the projects MC3.01/11-Lot 1 and Lot 2 was strengthening the capabilities of the beneficiary Nuclear Regulatory Authorities (NRA) and Technical Safety Organisations (TSO) in the field of nuclear safety and security as well as promoting regional and international networks with the respective NRAs. These projects were continuation to the project MC3.01/10. The projects focused on providing suitably standardized training and tutoring activities on a multi-national level where feasible and required to allow for uniform quality standards and consistent training content, and to enable the trainees from the beneficiary countries to form their own contacts with regional and international partners as well as develop their networks within EU member states’ organizations.

Along this phase of the INSC Training and Tutoring project, 267 nuclear and radiation safety experts from 21 EU organisations, representing 12 EU nuclear power countries, transmitted their knowledge and know-how to 469 participants coming from beneficiary countries. The beneficiary countries were Armenia, Belarus, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, The Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine and Vietnam. 17% of the participants were women

TASK 1: TRAINING & TUTORING PROGRAMME:

The objective of task 1 was to identify the specific needs for a specific country or region and on this basis to develop an appropriate multinational training/tutoring programme. This programme was due to concentrate on post-graduate activities and competence development. National Training Plans were developed during the project MC3.01/10 as a basis of beneficiaries training and tutoring needs assessment. The National Training Plans developed during the previous Phase I project were updated in these Phase II projects. Initially, fifteen specific training modules were developed under Lot 1. Each course was arranged in a way to provide self-contained training modules. Sixteen specific training modules were offered under Lot 2. Three modules were new and specifically developed for this project. Thirteen modules were already developed during the Phase I-Lot 2 project. The subject matter of the tutoring organised during the project responded to the different requests of the Partner Organisations. Six different subjects were defined for Lot 1 and nine for Lot 2.

TASK 2: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TRAINING &TUTORING ACTIVITIES:

Task 2 was devoted to the implementation of training courses and tutoring periods as defined at the development step. It included some general management actions necessary for both training and tutoring activities such as planning management for training and tutoring implementation; financial management for training and tutoring implementation; management of trainees’ attendance to training and tutoring activities. 202 representatives from Partner organisations attended the Lot 1 training activities during the project.

TASK 3: EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT:

Task 3 was devoted to the evaluation and feedback process. This process includes a trainee evaluation on the methods, resources employed, and the materials provided as well as their effectiveness in achieving the agreed learning outcomes. At the end of each ENSTTI training course and tutoring period, trainees were asked to complete an evaluation form that questions both the general features of the course (practical information, time management, others) and the specific topics (trainee’s interest, duration, supporting material and/or visits, pedagogy).

Conclusions and Recommendations

The project trained staff from nuclear regulatory authorities including their technical support organisations and promoted cooperation of nuclear regulatory authorities between the EU and partner countries by exchange of experience.

From June 2013 to December 2016, the project organised 51 weeks of training and 60 months of tutoring. During the project implementation and in particular at the occasion of the INSC coordination meeting held in Brussels in October 2013, several beneficiary countries commented on the possibility to develop regional or thematic focused courses.
One thematic could be the knowledge on VVER type reactors. The regulatory organisations of the new customer countries of VVER reactors would need to possess both a solid regulatory process in place and a good technical knowledge of this type of reactors.

Regional training courses to provide practical training in radiation protection principles, use of surveillance equipment, development of surveillance plans both for human and the environment, environmental impact assessment and management of low level long lived radioactive waste would be useful in the Central Asian region.
The roles of radiation protection officer (RPO) and radiation protection expert (RPE) are described in both the International and the EU Basic Safety Standard (BSS). Their recognition as such in national radiation protection system is required by the BSS. In principle, each country must have put in place a system of qualification/certification of its RPOs. From IAEA assessments, it appears that in Africa, only few countries have this system in place. To establish a generic certification system based on existing EU systems supported by a training framework based on the EC examples that African countries could use to develop their own qualification and training system would be of value.