Oct 22, 2020the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) has been awarded this year six ISO certifications for its robust systems put in place to carry out its mandate to regulate the nuclear industry in the country. The certification represents a milestone for FANR, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected the normal operation, causing wide-reaching uncertainties and FANR worked relentlessly to protect the public, the workers and the environment from radiation risks.
FANR received the following ISO certifications: ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems, ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems, ISO 22301:2012 Business Continuity Management Systems, ISO 22320:2018 Security and Resilience, Emergency management, ISO 30401:2018 Knowledge Management Systems, and ISO 10015:2019 Competence Management and People Development. These systems enable FANR to implement criteria of the 4G Excellence Model to achieve its objective in ensuring delivering of its services with quality and transparency.
“It is a significant milestone for FANR to be awarded such high-profile certifications, especially during the pandemic times. FANR proved its versatile systems are able to accommodate any unforeseen circumstances and work diligently to regulate the nuclear industry in the UAE. The certification is a demonstrations of FANR’s efforts towards excellence, which is necessary to achieve our vision in becoming one of the leading nuclear regulator globally as well as ensuring the protection of the people and the environment,” said Nadia Sultan, Corporate Development Director at the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR).
The ISO certification process has been thorough as it stipulates different requirements where FANR complied with such requirements. The ISO 22320:2018 Security and Resilience, Emergency Management requires implementing a system to communicate and manage an incident through an established process and collaborative teams. FANR has state-of-the-art emergency operations centre, where its coordinates with national and international stakeholders nuclear and/or emergency response efforts as well as procedures are applied to facilitate such work.
The ISO 22301:2012 Business continuity management systems ensure implementing and improving a system to protect the business functions and ensure its continuity in case of unforeseen circumstances. FANR developed a comprehensive Business Continuity Management to ensure critical activities of FANR remain available to staff and stakeholders.
In addition, The ISO 30401:2018 Knowledge Management Systems require establishing and maintaining systems to ensure knowledge management. FANR, being a nuclear regulator, implemented robust knowledge management system that identified critical regulatory knowledge to support nuclear and radiation safety, security and non-proliferation.
FANR put in place tools to minimize knowledge loss risk as well as to build Emirati capability and ensure knowledge transfer among employees. On the other hand, the ISO 10015:2019 Competence Management and People Development seeks to establish and implement systems to positively affect outcomes of the organization activities and services.
FANR built employee competency framework that identify the career requirements and staff progression. Supporting government direction to invest in research and development, FANR also established a nuclear regulatory research programme to support such activities with external stakeholders.
In addition, the ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems necessitate providing safe and healthy workplaces by preventing work-related injury and ill health. FANR implemented various HSE programmes including regular and awareness activities to strengthen staff wellbeing and safety at work. Meanwhile, the ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems seek to ensure that the organization is maintaining its environmental responsibilities systemically to ensure sustainability. To support its HSE efforts, FANR initiated many activities like improving air quality, and recycling of the disposed items.
Since its start in 2009, FANR has in place its Integrated Management System to document its work streams by detailing all the processes and procedures, being its core, support, or management processes. The system has been continuously benchmarked and improved against updates of standards from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in particular the IAEA safety requirements on Leadership and Management for Safety which is a dedicated management standard for nuclear organizations.
FANR’s Integrated Management System was certified in previous years: ISO 27001:2013 Information Security Management Systems and ISO 17025:2017 for its Secondary Standards Dosimetry Laboratory (SSDL) in 2018. In 2019, FANR was awarded ISO 9001:2015 Quality management systems.
The certification was awarded in a ceremony attended by the UK Ambassador to the UAE H.E. Patrick Moody, FANR’s management.