Progress on the WINS Challenge to Establish Certified Professional Development Programs

At the 2018 Institute for Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) Annual Meeting, Will Tobey, Chair of the World Institute for Nuclear Security (WINS), proposed a challenge to the INMM Membership: “That every member of INMM will have the opportunity to take certified, professional development courses relevant to their professional discipline by 2025.” WINS proposed this challenge based on its experience establishing the WINS Academy, a nuclear security management certification program supported by international commitments from 15 countries (IAEA INFCIRC/901) and over 1,000 participants from 92 countries. The objective in launching the challenge was to draw attention to the poor opportunities for structured professional development in the various nuclear materials management professions and to supplement on-the-job and awareness training with certified programmes that support statements of professional competence. As a result of this challenge, WINS is encouraging INMM members to undertake an analysis of their own training and professional development needs and determine if there is a market for establishing a certifying body for their profession. The International Safeguards Technical Division has responded by exploring the establishment of a working group to discuss how safeguards and INMM as a whole might respond to the challenge. Furthermore, INMM members have begun to explore the feasibility of establishing a certification program for Non-Destructive Assay. The proposed certification would build on lessons learned from the WINS Academy, as well as the American Nuclear Society’s Professional Engineering Licensure and the Certified Health Physicist certification programme. The objective is to develop a dedicated group of committed practitioners who have invested the time to become certified in their professional field, and who in turn promote certification and continuous professional development amongst their peers. The result would be a global network of trained professionals that receive higher professional respect and are better able to implement effective and sustainable nuclear materials management programs.