Survey on Nuclear Law Workforce Planning

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is an intergovernmental agency that facilitates co-operation among countries with advanced nuclear technology infrastructure to seek excellence in nuclear safety, technology, science, environment and law. The NEA operates within the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The NEA Global Forum on Nuclear Education, Science, Technology and Policy (Global Forum) is a framework for sustained co-operation and for enabling a long-term dialogue among academic institutions, policymakers and key stakeholders in the nuclear energy sector and civil society worldwide.

In the field of nuclear law, there has been insufficient provision to contribute to the development and adaptation required of nuclear law to meet the demands of the future, and the reduction in teaching of nuclear law has held back university-led applied research, at doctoral and post-doctoral levels, resulting in emerging gaps in the international and national legal and regulatory frameworks as new nuclear technologies and applications move toward reality. The NEA Global Forum established the Working Group on Re-Establishing Nuclear Law Education Programmes (GF-WG5) in March 2023, in part, to address these challenges.

This working group brings together academics and professionals from different universities and law schools who regularly meet to exchange information on existing nuclear law programmes, discuss challenges related to the implementation of nuclear law curricula (including research funding) and assist in the further development of graduate programmes in nuclear law.

This survey is intended for governments and private sector entities (companies, organisations, law firms, etc.) in the nuclear field. The “nuclear field” is defined as nuclear science and engineering and related areas of science, technology, law, policy, and education. The respondent should be working in the area of nuclear law and able to comment knowledgeably on the state of and need for nuclear law staff within their organisation.

The purpose of this survey is to understand the needs of governments and the private sector as they pertain to nuclear law education. We will analyse the responses to this survey to develop recommendations on enhancing nuclear law courses and programmes for university departments.

The GF-WG5 is conducting this survey and will analyse your responses. The responses to this survey are anonymous. In the event we were to obtain any personal data it would be protected consistent with the OECD Data Protection Rules (https://www.oecd.org/en/about/data-protection.html). If you have further queries or complaints related to the processing of your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Officer at dpo@oecd.org.

The survey is made up of a mix of multiple choice questions and free text responses. For the free text responses, please feel free to write as little or much as you like. Please do not include any information in your responses that could identify you or your organisation.

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. It is open from now until 31 March 2025. For any general queries or issues, please contact robyn.jordan@oecd-nea.org.