Taxonomy of Belarusian Educational and Research Portal of Nuclear Knowledge S. Sytova� A. Lobko, S. Charapitsa Research Institute for Nuclear Problems, Belarusian State University Abstract The necessity and ways to create Belarusian educational and research portal of nuclear knowledge are demonstrated. Draft tax­ onomy of portal is presented. 1 Introduction President Dwight D. Eisenhower in December 1953 presented to the UN initiative "Atoms for Peace" on the peaceful use of nuclear technology. Today, many countries have a strong nuclear program, while other ones are in the process of its creation. Nowadays there are about 440 nuclear power plants operating in 30 countries around the world. Nuclear reac­ tors are used as propulsion systems for more than 400 ships. About 300 research reactors operate in 50 countries. Such reactors allow production of radioisotopes for medical diagnostics and therapy of cancer, neutron sources for research and training. Approximately 55 nuclear power plants are under construction and 110 ones are planned. Belarus now joins the club of countries that have or are building nu­ clear power plant. Our country has a large scientific potential in the field of atomic and nuclear physics. Hence it is obvious the necessity of cre­ ation of portal of nuclear knowledge. The purpose of its creation is the accumulation and development of knowledge in the nuclear field as well as popularization of nuclear knowledge for the general public. *E-mail:[email protected] 212 Wisdom, enlightenment Figure 1: Knowledge management 2 Nuclear knowledge Since beginning of the XXI century the International Atomic Energy Agen­ cy (IAEA) gives big attention to the nuclear knowledge management (NKM) [1]-[3] . Nuclear knowledge (NK) base stems from both research and development aa well as industrial applications of nuclear technologies and includes energy and nonenergy applications. Knowledge management (KM) is an integrated, systematic approach to identifying, acquiring, transforming, developing, disseminating, using, sharing, and preserving knowledge, relevant to achieving specified objec­ tives. Basic KM concept is given in Fig.l [2] . On the foundation there are data. Data are unorganized and unprocessed facts, a set of discrete facts about events. Above there is the information as aggregation of data that makes decision making easier. Knowledge is a higher level of information, over there is the wisdom and enlightenment. Scheme of approximate percentage of subject area of nuclear knowledge by the IAEA is proposed in Fig.2. The strategy of the IAEA in NKM is in the following. It is extremely important that the educational process involves the enterprises of nuclear industry. Great attention is paid to reation and development of educational networks and portals, both national and regional. The IAEA developed detailed recommendations for creating of portals with formulation of pur­ poses and principles of their design. Taxonomy is the main KM concept. Taxonomy (from Greek 'taxis' 213 Ato mic, Molecular and Condensed Matter Physics Life Sciences Nuclear Physics 18% 11% NuclearMaterials 9% Engineering Economic, Legal & & Instrumentation Soclal 2% 9% Fusion Research and Technology 7% Elementary Particle Physics Nuclear Fuel Cycle & 16% Radioactive Waste Chemistry 3% 4�. Figure 2: Basic KM concept meaning arrangement or division and 'nomos ' meaning law) is a hierarchi­ cal structure in which a body of information or knowledge is categorized, allowing an understanding of its various parts relations with each other. Taxonomies are used to organize information in systems, thereby helping users to find it. Stages of developing of taxonomy of any types are the following: deter­ mination of taxonomy requirements; identification of its concepts (where is the content and what do the users think); developing draft taxonomy; its review by users; refining taxonomy; adaptation of taxonomy to the content; taxonomy management and maintenance. 214 3 Belarusian educational and research por­ tal of nuclear knowledge So, each developed country, forming its own nuclear industry, should in­ dependently develop, establish and maintain nuclear knowledge portal, integrated into the global nuclear knowledge management industry. Such portal will allow to manage information resources, knowledge and compe­ tencies of the nuclear industry of Belarus, as well as to preserve, maintain and develop the knowledge at a level that provides a safe, sustainable and efficient development of belarusian nuclear industry. Nowadays in Belarus there are several websites of selected organiza­ tions and institutions that are not related to the united portal, providing separate information on the subject that is far from completeness. Creating of a full-fledged portal of nuclear knowledge is the multi-stage process. As the first step we propose to create educational and research portal of nuclear knowledge. Prospective participants of such portal are Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus, Belarusian State Univer­ sity, Research Institute for Nuclear Problems of BSU, universities, training specialists for nuclear power plant, Department for Nuclear and Radiation Safetyof the Ministry for Emergency Situations of the Republic of Belarus (Gosatomnadzor), the Joint Institute for Power and Nuclear Research - SOSNY with supporting of the IAEA. The portal will be developed on the basis of experience and method­ ological support of the IAEA. The development and support of the portal requires constant government funding. For its creation it is necessary to build infrastructure and to have the availability of a critical massof basic science to support practical applications. The portal is a system that integrates all available in the country and abroad openly available information resources (applications, databases, an­ alytical systems, etc.), which allow the developers and users to interact with each other. The portal provides for users a secure access to information and vir­ tual channels of communication, e.g. to work together on documents from geographically spaced locations; access to all information resources of the portal through a single web-basedmode with a strong collaborative person­ alization (right of access to certain resources: data, services, applications, documents). The mission of the portal consists in formationof favorable information, 215 socio-cultural, business and educational environment for the sustainable development of nuclear industry in Belarus. Objectives of the portal are the following: acceleration of search and access to necessary data and information; creation of new knowledge; pro­ motion of participation in research, education and training programs in the nuclear industry. Basic principles of the portal creation are the next: discussion the requirements of the portal with all stakeholders before • development; developing a hierarchical taxonomy of the portal; • constant testing the portal for compliance with technical require­ • ments; maintaining transparency of the portal development; • publishing a description of the portal; • including in the group of developers representatives of all interested • organizations. Elements of the portal incorporate interface that provides a mechanism for interaction between applications and the users of the portal. Interface provides coordination between teams and individuals, with a convenient and quick search and navigation. Other elements are electronic docu­ ment management system to ensure the preparation of the document with the required level of quality, intelligent search, categorization of informa­ tion; project management, including project planning, establishing project objectives, project schedule control of resources, planning and allocation of human and financial resources; e-library (documents collection, knowl­ edge repository) consisting of various electronic materials, reports, techni­ cal documentation, regulatory documents, training materials etc.; learning content management system with a system of courses and distance learn­ ing and the ability to develop and improve the courses of studies; forums on the main areas of activity; news feeds and other applications that are integrated into the portal. Draft taxonomy of the portal is represented in Fig.3. It consists of the main sections cited above on the following topics: nuclear physics, nuclear materials, engineering and instrumentation, elementary particle physics, 216 atomic physics, molecular physics, condensed matter physics, life sciences, chemistry, nuclear power and safety, safeguards, isotopes, fusion research and technology, nuclear fuel cycle and radioactive waste etc. Together, the e-library materials, training courses, databases, electronic documents (photos, videos, etc.), other portal content will be organized in the nuclear knowledge base that contains knowledge in the field of nuclear technology, including nuclear and reactor physics, ionizing radiation, the application of nuclear methods in various fields of science and technology, radiation and radiochemistry, nuclear medicine, etc. The main stages of the work on portal creation consists fromtwo parts. The first stage with duration of 2 years includes the next steps: identify the source of the portal funding; • determine the owner of the portal; • definethe project team (responsibility, roles, functions); • determine the structure and the platform of the portal; • identifythe tools, techniques and sources for data collection / accu­ • mulation and storage