Planning Human Resources for Research Reactor Programmes

"The management of human resources is the pillar of successful project development," said Cheikh Niane, Technical Coordinator of Senegal's first research reactor project and General Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. "We should define what is the state of our workforce to support a nuclear programme in the country, and what should be our recruitment pool."

Senegal is one of several countries planning its first research reactor. In December 2022, a new IAEA training service was piloted in Senegal covering the IAEA's Human Resource Modelling Tool for New Research Reactor Programmes, which has been developed using a Nuclear Power Human Resources (NPHR) modelling tool, provided to the IAEA by the United States of America in 2011, as a basis. The NPHR helps countries to understand their workforce requirements and the flow of human resources when they are planning to start a nuclear power programme.

The new tool for research reactor programmes supports countries to better understand human resource requirements and the need for coherent national workforce development in this field. The workshop in Senegal included a demonstration of the human resource model, the installation and configuration of the tool on participants' computers, and training on basic skills in using dynamic modelling and exercises. It also covered good practices for workforce planning, safety and managing human resource data.

In April 2023, a similar training session was held in Thailand, which has one operational and two planned research reactors, in order to inform personnel on the use of the modelling tool and to provide feedback on Thailand's workforce plan. In addition, the session provided information on IAEA guidance and collaboration on how best to adapt the NPHR modelling tool for research reactors in the future.

"Human resource development is an important component in developing infrastructure for a new research reactor, according to the IAEA Milestones Approach," said Kanokrat Tiyapun, Reactor Manager at the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology. "The results from the model will be used as a support document to communicate with decision makers on human resource requirements, competency and the capacity of the country to meet the requirements of a new research reactor programme."