Paper Title: The Development of Nuclear Security Education and Training in South Africa

摘要

In its 2010 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for Electricity, the South African Governmentannounced its intention to integrate an additional 9.6 GW of nuclear power into thenational energy grid. In anticipation of this announcement the Nuclear IndustryAssociation of South Africa (NIASA) commissioned a skills survey to assess training andeducation needs for the construction of new nuclear power plants. The report concludedthat the need for staff skilled in nuclear security would expand in conjunction with theconstruction of new plants in South Africa. The assessment also included a review of thetraining and education in nuclear security plant personnel would require. Currently, only alimited number of academic programs exist in South Africa on either the undergraduate orpostgraduate level dedicated to nuclear engineering or radiation physics. Furthermore,only one course specifically includes an element of nuclear security. To strengthen nuclearsecurity education and training in South Africa, NIASA, the University of theWitwatersrand (Wits) and the U.S. Department of State’s Partnership for Nuclear Security(PNS) worked jointly to develop and host a workshop focused on nuclear securitycurriculum development. The workshop included participation from a number of SouthAfrican universities, the Department of Energy (SA), the National Nuclear Regulator ofSouth Africa (NNR), the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the State power utility(Eskom). The workshop successfully demonstrated the need to develop nuclear securityfocused curricula and identified future steps to achieving this goal. This paper will reviewthe findings in the NIASA skill assessment as well as the training and educational needsof new nuclear security personnel. The paper will also focus on current and plannedactions with international partners to develop nuclear security education and training inSouth Africa.