Post - Blog
Loosening the nuclear Gordian knot
- 3 years ago (2021-02-01)
- Junior Isles
By Kason Bala, Director of Nuclear Services at Tetra Tech
EP Shanghai 2024
The prospect of building a new fleet of power stations is a key stepping stone as we move towards meeting our net zero targets and tackling the energy crisis on the horizon. News of Sizewell C progressing on the back of the UK’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution bolsters confidence in making this a reality.
As much as this presents an opportunity, it also incurs risk. To address energy requirements, we also need to address the skills requirements against competing priorities at a macroeconomic level.
Meeting the technical challenges of the nuclear industry
If Hinkley Point C is any indication, which will involve over 25 000 workers in construction, the £20 billion Sizewell C investment alone will also require similar significant recruitment. It is estimated the nuclear industry needs to hire about 40 000 people by 2030 to operate Hinkley Point C, Sizewell C, and Bradwell B.
Understandably, one of the questions is whether we have the right resources available to deliver these projects. With an aging nuclear workforce, lengthy developments for new nuclear builds, and a tumultuous stop-start pattern across new civil nuclear projects, it has become a grand challenge to attract, train, and retain people regardless of background and demographics.
In the face of an imminent skills shortage, where will the needed talent come from? It’s a valid question, since the nuclear industry hasn’t always been the best at promoting itself. Many recruits will need specialist skills to meet the demanding technical challenges of nuclear across the lifecycle and help the UK retain its place as a world leader in science, engineering and technology.
The Nuclear Industry Council and Nuclear Skills Strategy Group (NSSG) have made great strides in benchmarking and assessing requirements and highlighting risks and targets for the UK nuclear industry. Unfortunately, the last five years have been marked by considerable uncertainty surrounding new nuclear civil plants, threatening to derail the UK’s management of capability and capacity requirements for the industry.
The shutdown of NuGen and temporary pause on the Horizon projects, among others, have certainly not helped the industry, which now faces the uphill battle of not just attracting, but training and retaining talented people who may harbour doubts about their long-term career pathway and job security. This uncertainty immediately impacts supply chain organisations, creating a Gordian knot between the resource requirements and staccato nature of civil nuclear investment decisions. The knot is further tightened by competing priorities in other nuclear sectors – such as decommissioning, remediation, and defence – as well as other energy sources like wind, solar, or hydrogen. All will require balanced investment.
The ray of light is the UK’s commitment to the Ten Point Plan. Research and development investment into Advanced Modular Reactors and Small Modular Reactors will be critical to not just the future of nuclear energy but maintaining interest by whetting the appetite of our next generation of talent. For nuclear to thrive, and the Gordian knot to be loosened, public and private must signal to supply chain organisations that there will indeed be a return on investment.
Without stability, we risk hamstringing efforts to recruit talent. A shortage of skilled workers will eventually create tough competition for specialist skills that will drive up labour costs, threatening to raise the cost of developing critical projects and increase our reliance on foreign expertise for civil projects. The latter would bring its own logistical nightmare of security concerns.
Bringing more diversity of thought to nuclear
Despite efforts over the last decade to address diversity and inclusion – including a nuclear sector deal that shows intent and a trajectory for meeting tangible targets – this alone isn’t enough to drive the industry forward. Diversity of thought in terms of cognitive behaviours is equally if not more important.
Ironically, as important as the next generation of scientists and engineers will be, the main challenge lies in acquiring more of what the industry labels “generic skills”. We need to recognise that the nuclear industry relies on a far wider set of skills than just STEM, particularly from a commercial and logistical lens. These include project and programme management, cost management, and skills pertaining to surrounding infrastructure that enables nuclear development like transport.
Promoting this variety of disciplines matters, but how we communicate with young people might matter even more. The next generation of talent already operates on a different digital frequency compared to the nuclear industry. Digital platforms like social media must therefore play a greater role in how we communicate with younger people about nuclear. With the industry increasingly reliant on digital technology skills, the sector must draw on tech-savvy talent from younger generations to grow.
Alongside this, we must continue to pursue apprenticeships, graduate schemes, sponsorship, and trailblazer programmes, and strategic industry-academic partnerships to align educational courses and postgraduate research with the industry’s needs. These opportunities must include non-STEM fields, given that even a skilled project manager needs a great deal of nuclear awareness training to adapt to rigorous quality and regulatory standards onsite.
As civil and defence nuclear programmes speed up, the only way to recruit enough qualified talent is by looking toward a more diverse workforce. This will require accelerating and supporting efforts made by NSSG and other initiatives like Women in Nuclear to drive and create innovative approaches for seeking out a larger and broader base of talent to drive disruptive thinking.
Although the industry is on a journey to achieve better representation of groups – such as achieving a national target of 40 percent women in nuclear by 2030 as included in the Nuclear Sector Deal, we must do more to recognise other underrepresented groups like ethnic minorities.
The time for action is now
While we face a monumental challenge here, it’s one we must overcome. The swift decision-making on Sizewell C and Bradwell B (and future nuclear plants) makes economic sense and we need decision-making stability without the cognitive barriers of fear.
The foundations are in place. To shape the future success of nuclear, a strong and stable partnership must prevail between Government and the wider sector of supply chain partners, regulators, researchers, and skills bodies. With a 2050 net-zero target closing in, the need for a low carbon economy is becoming increasingly apparent and the consequences of failure would be unpalatable.
* As of 11th January 2021, WYG officially adopted the name of its parent company Tetra Tech