The tenth meeting of the Management Board of the NEA Nuclear Education, Skills and Technology (NEST) Framework took place at the NEA headquarters on 18-19 November 2024. The meeting coincided with the five-year anniversary of the platform, which serves to address important gaps in nuclear skills capacity building, knowledge transfer and technical innovation in an international context.
This meeting was the first to have 13 countries participating in an official capacity, following the adhesion of Poland and the Netherlands in May 2024. NEA Director-General William D. Magwood, IV joined the meeting to share special remarks, underlining the importance of nuclear education across NEA member countries as they seek to develop and strengthen their national nuclear workforce.
During the meeting, project leaders from six active NEST Projects reported on their recent progress and activities. These included the NEST Small Modular Reactor (SMR) workshop that enrolled 46 Fellows in a series of online training modules, culminating in a week at McMaster University in Canada. In addition, the NEST BEAST summer school at Aachen Institute for Nuclear Training (AiNT) in Germany covered topics related to radiological characterisation of waste, decontamination and disposal techniques and offered Fellows hands-on training at the technical centre. The first NEST TCOFF-II school in Japan was also highlighted, as it gave Fellows the opportunity to present their work at the International Topical Workshop on Fukushima-Daiichi Decommissioning Research and visit the Fukushima-Daiichi site and Naraha Remote Technology R&D centre (NARREC).
Three NEST Projects presented proposals for extension, which were approved by the Management Board. The NEST PANDA and NEST ARTERD Projects will now continue until the end of 2027, with the NEST SMR Project adding a one-year extension.
The Management Board approved the programme of activities for 2025, which will establish the first NEST Summer School focusing on non-technical skills and innovation, as well as the second NEST Awards Ceremony in conjunction with the World Nuclear Exhibition in November in Paris.
The meeting also witnessed the election of a new NEST Bureau, Chair and Vice-Chair. From 1 January 2025, the NEST Framework will be led by Chair Stéphanie Cornet (France) and Vice-Chair Michèle Coeck (Belgium), supported by bureau members Jenny Cox (Canada), Koji Okamoto (Japan) and Andreas Pautz (Switzerland).
Following the meeting, Management Board members joined with NEST Fellows to participate in the NEST Awards Ceremony and commemorate the fifth anniversary of the NEST Framework.
If you are interested in participating in NEST, or for more information, please visit the web page or contact the NEST Secretariat at nest@oecd-nea.org.
