Good Practices Of The Online Training On Physical Protection Of Nuclear Materials And Facility

In the amid of COVID-19 pandemic, Integrated Support Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security (ISCN) of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) developed and conducted the two-week regional training course on physical protection of nuclear materials and facility (PP RTC) for Asian countries in October 19-30, 2020 as an online course. ISCN/JAEA launched its first PP RTC in 2011, and since then, has been offering the course annually as the primary training course in nuclear security. Because stringent travel restrictions were imposed in many countries, ISCN/JAEA turned this challenge into an opportunity to develop an online course. ISCN/JAEA developed the PP RTC with the support from U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration through Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), so that it was quite natural for ISCN/JAEA to partner with SNL for online PP RTC development. The online setting solved the challenge of travel restriction; however, maintaining the quality of in-person two-week training through online platforms was another big challenge. For effective learning, ISCN/JAEA focused on securing interaction between instructors and participants as well as among participants, and such interactive learning was received quite positively by the participants. ISCN/JAEA combined e-learning (self-study) and interactive learning (virtual classroom) for its online PP RTC, and engaged participants through group exercise via Zoom meeting. The paper will describe efforts of ISCN/JAEA and SNL to develop the online curriculum of PP RTC and share lessons learned and good practices for course development and course implementation. The paper will also explore future application of online contents in nuclear security capacity building even after COVID-19 pandemic.