 Soundcheck testing. Hello, Diana. Hello, my name is Nicholas Gaspard and I'm the head of digital communications at the IAA We are live from Vienna our headquarters And this is the ninth session in a series of lives where we discuss what it is like to work at the IAA and how the recruitment process works We'll also answer some of the questions. We have received from applicants like you If you have any questions really to what we will be talking about today Please put them in the comment box and we'll try our best to answer them at the end of the session Today we will talk about nuclear safeguards inspectors and what safeguards inspectors do We'll also explain what we are looking for during the recruitment process We'll provide some tips to help you better prepare if you want to join our 250 safeguards inspectors here at the IAA We recruit between 10 and 15 new inspectors every year and June is recruitment season for us So if you're interested check out the vacancy notice on the IAA website the deadline for applications is the end of June So that's enough of an introduction now. Let me turn to our panel three safeguards inspectors three colleagues of mine from here at the IAA So first we have Judy Vishniarskas Gomez from Colombia. She's a research reactor expert who first joined the IAA in 2014 She has been an inspector since 2018 Andrew Yu is from Malaysia and he worked at the at his country's nuclear regulatory authority Before joining the IAA also in 2014 Amina Uttman from Nigeria worked at her country's nuclear regulator before she became a safeguards inspector here two years ago So Judy first question is to you could you explain to us what safeguards are and what inspectors do? Thank you Good afternoon Okay, so safeguards entails the verification regime of nuclear material around the world is a set of specific measures To verify that states are complying with the non-proliferation treaty or the NPT and making sure that the nuclear material is being kept for peaceful uses and purpose and These measures are being implemented by nuclear safeguards inspectors among other specialists here in the Department of safeguards And we basically we go to the field We review the accounting records of the nuclear material. We measure the material We visit nuclear facilities and review the design information of these facilities We collect all these information we come back to headquarters We analyze what we've got and we report on these results. Thank you very much As you'll hear today nuclear inspectors come in all shapes and sizes From all kinds of backgrounds. So first I'd like to ask each of our panelists starting with you Andrew What your background is and what motivated you to join the IAA? Good afternoon everyone Andrew from Malaysia My back my bachelor background is on medical physics. My postgraduate is on export controls so as I have been in the nuclear regulatory in Malaysia for since 2008 I was involved in the export controls and I could to see that there is a lot of international cooperation that is needed to ensure that the regime of export controls is performed correctly that is where I get to know about the International Atomic Energy Agency by joining the agents by joining the IAEA The the ability to contribute more to the regime of non-proliferation as well as the ability To able to interact with people from many places and as an inspector as well We get to go to a lot of places to learn a lot of To get to able to visit a lot of nuclear facilities and the most importantly in the agency they give endless training for people with very little Nuclear experiences to ensure that as a nuclear inspector we are able to perform our duty efficiently and professionally Thank you Thank you very much Andrew Amina what about you could you tell us about your background and what motivated you to join the IAA? Hello everyone So for me I have a first degree in biochemistry basic sciences And then I have a postgraduate degree in environmental management and technology so I worked with the Regulatory body in my country for eight years in safeguards So for me it was literally career development Like what's the next thing and the IAA is the only organization that offers that opportunity for me to progress in safeguards So I joined the agency Thank you. Thank you Judy. What about you? What's your story? Okay So I have a master of science in reactor physics and technology from the University of Birmingham in the UK And I have around ten years of working experience in different fields of nuclear such as research reactor education Utilization nuclear safety as well. And I was it's a basic answer for me I was mainly motivated because of the mission of the IAA It felt to me very inspiring and I felt I wanted to be part of that mission And I knew it was not the regular 9 to 5 job it was gonna involve some hands-on activities And I felt that's something that I find interesting and yeah, maybe that was the main reason Very good. Thank you very much. So now moving on to those hands-on activities. I'd like to ask each of you What's the best thing about your job at the IAA? So Amina your turn to start So the best thing about the working for the IAA Like you get to meet professionals who are really professionals in your field Everybody knows this stuff and the team work is is great So you're working with people with from different backgrounds different cultural upbringing and you need to harness all this and You know it makes you like on the top of your game So it's it's an organization that is unique in the sense that there's no other Organization in the world that does what we do here So you get to work with 200 about 250 unique people out of the world population of 7.8 billion you get to be one of those and for me, I think That's like when I sit and say, oh, I'm a safeguard inspector. It's really makes me proud of myself I'm like, okay. I'm nowhere. I want to be yet, but I know sure that On the way, so it's it's a really great feeling and for that. I really love working at the IAA Thank you. Thank you, Judy. What's the best thing for you? Okay, I must say I really agree with everything what Amina said and I could have the same answer but in order to not to repeat The best part for me is that The nuclear industry is a very specialized industry So when one specializes in in a particular area of nuclear one ends up working many many years in that field in or in that specific area and working in that specific facility for many years The good thing about being an inspector is that you get to see different facilities from the whole nuclear fuel cycle So you end up going to facilities like research reactors nuclear power plants enrichment facilities conversion facilities and not only one type of Nuclear power plant you get to see light water reactors boiling water reactors, you know Can do type of reactors so it's really someone that really loves nuclear We'll find these very, you know fun and interesting and it's again what Amina was saying very very unique So yeah, that's for me the best part Thank you. So it's the mission the uniqueness and the diversity in the technical work Andrew I concur with both of my colleagues and But my personal opinion will be the as I was mentioning earlier IAA provides Countless training they will ensure that every young professionals or Professionals that come in as the safeguards inspectors are well-trained the knowledge that has been imparted by our inspectors the Experience inspectors and the trainings we're sure that we are always on top of everything Apart from that the most importantly is the agency's ability to promote opportunity for young professionals The ability for us to come in as a white paper a piece of white paper But they are able to shape us and into a team into a person's that are able to accomplish Responsibility as a as a as a good save us inspectors So the the working environment is very diverse and the opportunities always there Thank you. So The many people watching us are interested in this field, so I'd like to ask each of you starting with Judy What advice you would give to them as they prepare to possibly apply? Okay, one particular advice that helped me specifically was the fact that I had The opportunity to explain in my application that I was involved in some sort of Hanson Previously Hanson activities such as having used detectors for example being in a lab session Having performed research reactors experiments or being involved in the performing of research reactor experiments So all those type of very practical and Hanson activities are very useful when you apply So to you know, let the the IA know you know how to handle equipment You know how to calibrate an equipment how to measure material and so on that's From my experience was was was very useful. So that's what would be my piece of advice Thank you Andrew. What advice do you have? Importantly Importantly in my opinion as a young professionals or as a whomever wants to apply is do not be afraid Do not be afraid to highlight your ability when you write your essays because every small contribution means a lot to For the panels of a D to describe who you are and be truthful for you who you are So that itself we're able to to show that you are someone who is confident and are really interested to be joining This organization. Yeah, thank you Amina So for me based on my experience, I'm from a country with a little or no nuclear fuel cycle activities and Yeah, we do work mostly on nuclear fuel cycle activities So I would advise you have to like have a balance. So you don't have nuclear fuel cycle activities in your country That's absolutely fine But you could read up on these things online use online articles You could learn from them just to have an idea of what it is You may have the knowledge, but you just need to prove to the recruiter that I can do this And then you need to have this open mindset that you are open to continuous learning and development because just like my colleague said You are shipped eventually to fit into What's the mission that you have to achieve at the IAE? So Be opened and let them know that you have a learning mindset Which we all like it would really help your application process and don't let anyone tell you that you cannot be one of those 250 inspectors I tell you everybody is qualified You just need to show them that you can do the job and prove to them that you you can do the job So and also use opportunities There's the agency offers a lot of training opportunities even at the state level So if you can get across with your state and see what kind of training opportunities that may be open for you From there you can start and keep going and you improve your knowledge. So and don't apply once Keep keep in like I told you 250 people in 7 7.8 billion. It's really competitive, but I'm sure With perseverance and consistency you will definitely get in Julie would like to add something. Yes, I just want to add something to what Amina said I always end up discussing about research reactors But the thing is with research reactors There normally are in universities which are open sometimes to the public So you can an advice would be find out if there's a research reactor in a university near where you live I think in Nigeria, there's a research reactor and you know contact them and let them know Hey, I'm interesting to know, you know how things work in here. I want to take a look at the research reactor That will be a way of how you can say, okay. I've been in a nuclear facility. I know how a research reactor works I took a look at the design information and so on so that would be also very useful Thank you go ahead Andrew I'm being inspired of my colleague and I would like to share one more is that the if you have or you know Anyone that is working in the agency as an inspectors It is good to approach them and then to get a know-how on how it's a daily level of inspectors and what is being expected But if you don't have I believe you can ask the organizers three of us are more than help more than happy to assist you To be to be like a virtual mentor for you if he's if he's what you need it I think three of us are more than happy to do that Thank you very much. Well on that note These were all our questions Typically at this point we would be asking questions from the audience But because of the technical glitch that we had earlier you were not able to send us questions for which I apologize Please come back next month when we do another session that I'm sure we'll be able to start on time and in the meantime don't forget to subscribe to a newsletter and Check out our job openings including for safeguards inspectors at id.org slash employment Thank you and see you soon