From 8 to 12 July, a Technical Meeting regarding Simple Knowledge Management Systems for Nuclear Facilities Decommissioning was held in Vienna (Austria) within the framework of the International Decommissioning Network (IDN) Forum. The event was organised in cooperation with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (EC- JRC).

The purpose of the event was to discuss the best practices in knowledge management to support nuclear facilities decommissioning and to share experiences with IAEA Member States to improve the interoperability of existing international knowledge systems.

The Chornobyl NPP was represented by Maksym Protsenko, Head of the Engineering Centre, who presented the report “Data Collection and Use during ChNPP Decommissioning”.

“For many years, the IAEA and the JRC-EC have been collecting knowledge from past decommissioning projects, both successful and unsuccessful, which is invaluable for informing for future endeavours. “Lessons learned, best practices, innovative technologies and case studies should be documented, disseminated and continuously improved to increase the safety and efficiency of decommissioning activities”, comments Maksym Protsenko.

For Chornobyl NPP, accumulating and keeping up-to-date the information necessary for planning and organising decommissioning activities is also an important task, as well as providing knowledge to several future generations of specialists who will implement the final stages of ChNPP decommissioning. At the moment, we are using the Decommissioning Information Support System (DISE), which was adapted for Chornobyl NPP as part of international assistance in 2012.

"The working week was very fruitful. It was possible to get acquainted with the presented global experience in knowledge management to support nuclear facilities decommissioning. I believe that the experience exchange with the IAEA Member States will promote improvement of operational interoperability of existing international knowledge systems”,- pointed out Maxsym Protsenko. “A lot of information was presented in the form of presentations, and a lot was taken from the discussions. This was especially true for knowledge management approaches used in planning and implementing decommissioning projects, the role of digital technologies in decommissioning data management, and means of access facilitation to decommissioning experience”.

“I believe that the next step to improve the exchange of knowledge on decommissioning will be presented at the event initiative to develop the joint platforms for interconnection of existing databases and knowledge sources to which the Chornobyl NPP will be involved”, - summarised Head of the Engineering Centre.