ENSI is attending a four-day conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA – the International Conference on Effective Nuclear and Radiation Regulatory Systems – which is taking place in Abu Dhabi from 13 to 16 February 2023. A core theme of the conference will be the topic of competence management in the nuclear sector.
“Competence management is of great importance for us if safety is to be maintained in the long term: without competent specialists it would simply not be possible to oversee the safety and security of nuclear installations,” explains ENSI Director General Marc Kenzelmann.
For ENSI, competence management is of central importance in fulfilling its mandate. Societal, technological and political developments over recent years have influenced the world of work and it has been necessary to set new priorities in order to safeguard ENSI’s competence management approach.
A range of measures have been initiated and implemented in recent years in order to create framework conditions that will ensure competence management remains effective in the long term. This is backed by the service mandate of the ENSI board to ENSI and by the recommendation of the IRRS mission from October 2021. Among other things, working conditions have been modernised, new concepts introduced in personnel and management development, various activities implemented within the framework of operational health management and employer branding, and competence management further developed.
But it is not only ENSI that has been spotlighting the importance of competence management: nuclear regulators as a whole view the long-term recruitment and retention of competent personnel internationally as a major challenge. One of the central main topics at the IAEA conference International Conference on Effective Nuclear and Radiation Regulatory Systems on 13 – 16 February 2023 in Abu Dhabi is, therefore, competence management. Marc Kenzelmann will be presenting ENSI’s various approaches to this topic at the conference.
The conference is the sixth in a series of conferences on effective nuclear regulatory systems. The five previous conferences took place in The Hague in 2019, Vienna in 2016, Ottawa in 2013, Cape Town in 2009 and Moscow in 2006. Delegates include managers and specialists responsible for the oversight of nuclear installations. The aim of the conference is to share experience and best practices.
ENSI Director General Hans Wanner is resigning from his position as WENRA chairperson. His replacement is Olivier Gupta, Director General of the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN). The official handover occurred as part of the celebrations of WENRA’s 20th anniversary.
