Knowledge management (KM) is a discipline focused on ways that organisations create and use knowledge. The EU nuclear Decommissioning Knowledge Management (DKM) aims at gathering, screening, storing, and sharing knowledge gained by users and organisations involved in decommissioning programmes and projects in Europe.
The European Parliament and the Council promoted actions to ensure the collection and dissemination of knowledge and expertise from current decommissioning programmes in Europe, to support future decommissioning projects in Europe. (Council regulation 2021/100 and 2021/101) and charged the JRC Ispra with the DKM initiative.
The JRC itself is managing decommissioning of several nuclear research facilities at its four sites (Karlsruhe, Geel, Petten and Ispra) including one nuclear reactor at Ispra, Italy. Its Decommissioning & Waste Management (D&WM) Programme started officially in 1999, following a Communication to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. The D&WM programme spans four decades and JRC, given its experience as a decommissioning operator, was charged with managing the knowledge gained in EU funded decommissioning programmes.
The DKM initiative is of key importance to a variety of stakeholders. Decommissioning as part of a nuclear facility’s lifetime has increased KM visibility because 56 of the 143 NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) in 13 of the EU Member States have reached the end of their operating lifetimes (source WNA) and more will come to it in the next 20 years.
The DKM initiative will evolve over a few years process, it starts from creating and collecting Knowledge Products (KPs), and it will proceed in their classification according to the new international decommissioning taxonomy.
Nuclear decommissioning knowledge products
Knowledge Product: A tangible output (document, service, event, media, etc) of prepared knowledge that enables action of selected users. The preparation of knowledge is the process that collects, manages, and shares knowledge in a certain manner. KP is a tool developed that enables interconnectivity between people, information, and processes. It can also support visual tools aimed at achieving strategic learning goals.
An example of a knowledge product, as a service, coordinated by the JRC is the training programme ELINDER (European Learning Initiatives for Nuclear Decommissioning and Environmental Remediation).
Another knowledge product, as a media, generated by the JRC is aNDy, a virtual nuclear decommissioning expert in communication.
Knowledge products, like documents, are currently generated by the NDAP (Nuclear Decommissioning Assistance Program) operators, i.e. Kozloduy NPP (Bulgaria), V1 NPP Bohunice (Slovakia), INPP Ignalina (Lithuania) and by the JRC Ispra. Six knowledge products have been generated so far, with more to come in the coming years.
Knowledge products planned in 2023 by the JRC Ispra are:
- Final Waste Package design and qualification report
- Interim Storage Facility design and licensing report
- 3D Information Management System operational decommissioning tool report
- Technical report on a 3D modelling and application on a nuclear site under decommissioning
What is ELINDER and how its training programme helps the spread of nuclear decommissioning knowledge.
Who is aNDy (aka Andy) and what is the message of the nuclear decommissioning activities at the JRC-Ispra.
How and what knowledge products are generated by the NDAP in 2021-2022 and which ones are planned in 2023 by the JRC.
The final goal of DKM initiative is the creation of an interactive user-centred platform EUKLIDE (EUropean Knowledge and Learning Initiative on DEcommissioning), in which KPs will be stored and made available, events will be created, services will be shown and provided to future platform users and contributors.
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