Technical Meeting on Strengthening Human and Organizational Resilience in Nuclear Organizations

Background

Emerging from the nuclear industry’s continuous pursuit for safety and safety culture, the concept of resilience is crucial not only in acute shock and emergency situations, but also during steady-state operations along with unexpected conditions that can arise.

Resilience, defined within the context of an operating nuclear power plant, is “the ability to effectively respond to every day, emergent, and emergency conditions to reserve nuclear fundamental safety functions and sustain advanced performance in nuclear operating plants”.

The purpose of this event is to provide a forum to introduce, as well as explore, the importance of resilience in the nuclear industry and share practices that effectively strengthen and maintain individual, collective, and human organizational performance.

This meeting will feature a combination of didactic and participatory activities aimed at establishing a strong foundation for integrating resilience as a crucial component in nuclear operations. Additionally, the event will collect feedback on the draft publication entitled “Strengthening Resilience in the Nuclear Operating Organization”, which is to be distributed to participants prior to the event.

Objectives

The objective of this meeting is to introduce and solicit feedback on the draft publication, Strengthening Resilience in the Nuclear Operating Organization, as well as share and capture best practices for strengthening resilience. This will include some examples that may serve as resources and case studies for the publication’s appendices. In essence, the goal of the event is to move toward completion of a publication intended to help senior managers and operational decision-makers within operating nuclear power plants.

Topics

• How resilience operates in the context of nuclear industry
• The characteristics and capabilities that enable resilience
• How to embed resilience into human and organizational performance to better ensure achievement of industry goals
• Sharing of experience and good practices that systematically strengthen resilience in operating nuclear power plants
• Review of and discussion on the draft publication, “Strengthening Resilience in the Operating Nuclear Power Organization”

Target Audience

Senior managers and operational decision-makers within operating NPPs, in addition to those committed to the continuing improvement of nuclear power plant operations.

Venue

The event will be held in meeting room Boardroom C at the Vienna International Centre (VIC) where the IAEA’s Headquarters are located. Participants must make their own travel and accommodation arrangements.

Participation

All persons wishing to participate in the event must be designated by an IAEA Member State or should be members of organizations that have been invited to attend.

In order to be designated by an IAEA Member State, participants are requested to send the Participation Form (Form A) to their competent national authority (e.g. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Permanent Mission to the IAEA or National Atomic Energy Authority) for onward transmission to the IAEA by October 20th, 2023.

The application for financial support should be made using the Grant Application Form (Form C), which must be stamped, signed, and submitted by the competent national authority to the IAEA together along with the Participation Form (Form A), by no later than by October 20th, 2023.