Specialists of VNIIAES JSC have trained a number of heads of ministries and departments of Bolivia and representatives of the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency (ABEN).

The training was conducted in Spanish in the city of La Paz as part of the agreement between RusatomService CJSC and the Plurinational State of Bolivia. Bolivian listeners included those directly involved in the national nuclear program development, including the construction of the Centre for Nuclear Science and Technology (CNST) under the Russian project.

21 heads of the Bolivian nuclear program successfully completed training and passed the exam in “Integrated Management System (IMS) for the nuclear program”.

The course was exploring the issues of building and developing the IMS in the Bolivian nuclear sector, particularities of applying approaches to management systems in novice countries, details and experience of applying a differentiated approach to building nuclear safety management, the issues of safety culture as a center for building the IMS, process development, performance indicators of the CNST constructed as well as nuclear knowledge management.

Practical examples showed the importance of leadership for safety, the need to choose a strategy for implementing nuclear program on the principles set by the IAEA safety standards and other Agency publications, taking into account extensive Russian experience.

The listeners themselves highly appreciated the quality of the training course, recognizing it as one of the best ones conducted by Russian specialists in Bolivia for the national nuclear program implementation.

This was VNIIAES’s first experience of training Latin American colleagues in order to support the Russian nuclear technologies.