AdSTM instructors, Mr. Rich Emch and Dr. David Squarer, conducted two licensing workshops, from October 19-23, 2015 in Hanoi, Vietnam. The International Regulatory Development Program (IRDP) workshops, How to Manage a Regulatory Review and Licensing Process, was presented to and hosted by the Vietnamese regulator, the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (VARANS); VARANS is part of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Sixteen VARANS staff participated in the five-day training event, which were recently developed under the IRDP for 2015.
The How to Manage a Regulatory Review is a one-day high level tutorial that provides an overview of the necessary attributes that must be in place to manage a regulatory review for the siting, safety review, construction and licensing of a nuclear power plant; whereas the Licensing Process is a more detailed four-day workshop that focuses on the NRC processes and decisions involved in the initial licensing and licensing actions during plant operation. The Licensing Process Workshop is a combination of classroom lecture, discussion, and exercises.
Several participants indicated that the exercises were valuable and strengthened their understanding of the materials presented throughout the workshop, they also suggested additional topics that could expand and enhance the workshop. Participants also commented that the workshops were both very useful and different from other training that VARANS staff has received from other international organizations.
Since the function of Vietnam’s nuclear regulatory authority for licensing nuclear power plants is shared by several government Ministries, the training of the Vietnamese nuclear regulators requires special considerations when developing country specific materials such as workshop exercises, which was done for this event.