Memorandum 89
Submission from the Institute of Physics
(IoP)
The UK's engineering capacity to build a new generation
of nuclear power stations and carry out planned decommissioning
of existing nuclear power stations
The UK is facing a critical skills shortage
in the nuclear technology sector. The energy portfolio, nuclear
decommissioning, radioactive waste management and new nuclear
build are very much in the nation's strategic interest, and this
is a crucial time to ensure that the nuclear skills base is not
eroded but built up to meet the long-term challenges of a possible
new build programme. Even without new build, the entire nuclear
industry employs over 18,000[3]
graduates and skilled people, with ongoing recruitment required
to fill vacancies, particularly for decommissioning. More detailed
estimates of the numbers required to allow for new build were
made in the Nuclear Task Force's report, An Essential Programme
to Underpin Government Policy on Nuclear Power,[4]
2003. This report estimated that 355 scientists and engineers
were required, including 122 engineers. The engineering sub-groups,
in order of size, were: chemical engineers, remote inspection,
safety risk assessment, thermal hydraulics, and control and instrumentation.
All of this would be daunting enough if the
skills shortages were confined to the nuclear sector, but the
UK has a general shortage of science, technology, engineering
and mathematics (STEM) skilled graduates. The energy supply sector
is undergoing change and rapid expansion in many other fields
that also require graduate and technical expertise, examples include
clean-coal and renewables technologies. It is essential to see
the need for nuclear engineers within the comprehensive need of
all energy supplies as development and change occurs in response
to climate change.
Currently, many experienced nuclear engineers
in the UK are over the age of 50 and thus likely to be retiring
within the next decade. All of the engineers involved in the original
planning and building of the UK's nuclear power stations (the
first of which opened in 1956) have already retired. There is
also a possibility that expertise will be lost rather than passed
on, particularly given the high proportion of freelancers in the
sector. Therefore, there is a need to ensure that a new generation
of nuclear engineers are trained while ensuring that existing
expertise is used efficiently and properly incentivised.
A survey of Nuclear Employers undertaken by
Cogent in 2005[5]
found that:
"The SET workforce has a more ageing profile
than the overall industry. 11% are due to retire over the next
10 years, but this could rise as high as 20% if early retirements
at age 60 occur. Certain areas were found to have an older workforce,
eg 44% of process & machine operatives are aged over 45. While
overall demand for this group may be declining this is outstripped
by the rate of retirements. Nuclear heat generation has an ageing
profile with 18% due to retire over the next 10 years; however
this could rise up to 33% if early retirements occur."
Furthermore, the Energy Research Partnership
(ERP)[6]
found in its investigation into high-level skills shortages in
the energy sector that, "The problem is only at its early
stages-without intervention this situation is anticipated to worsen
to a severe shortage, particularly when the extent of energy innovation
and infrastructure replacement that is required is taken into
account."[7]
The National Skills Academy for Nuclear (NSAN),[8]
launched earlier this year, estimated that 1,500 skilled people
need to be replaced each year, with an additional 11,500 over
the next 20 years to complete the task of decommissioning, and
6,500 in other civil/defence sectors, which includes new build.[9]
New build projects will face competition for staff from other
areas of the nuclear technology sector and beyond.
Hence, there is an urgent need to maintain and
develop a nuclear skills base, particularly in the core sciences
(especially physics), engineering, materials science, project
management, and technician level skills. By focusing this Inquiry
on "nuclear engineers" it is possible to obtain a misleading
impression, both in terms of training and employment. It is important
to note that significant areas of nuclear power technology (its
full life-cycle including waste-handling and decommissioning)
are underpinned by physics, such as reactor technology, nuclear
data measurement and evaluation, safety, criticality studies,
and materials properties.
The NSAN's remit covers skills at school, in
vocational qualifications and further education, up to and including
foundation degrees. Its responsibility is focussed on young people
at the beginning of the pipeline, but does not extend into higher
education. The NSAN has a critical role to play in developing
a standardised and coordinated approach to education, training
and skills development in the nuclear sector. The government and
Cogent need to support the academy and encourage more research
centres to be developed in order to ensure that the skills base
is buoyant, fully trained and equipped to meet the challenges
that the nuclear sector will face.
The nuclear industry also currently needs well-trained
graduates in physics, chemistry, materials science and mechanical
and control engineering who can obtain specialist industrial skills
in reactor technology through in-house training and university
postgraduate courses. It is therefore important to the sector
that sufficient students are recruited on engineering and physical
science undergraduate programmes whether or not they are "nuclear"
based.
The UK's nuclear engineering capacity is also
dependent on the training in ethical issues of its science and
engineering students. Nuclear engineers regularly face ethical
issues in preparing safety cases, reporting scientific findings
with safety-case significance, and dealing with the regulator
in a commercial environment. Engineers who have acquired a sound
ethical awareness in their education will be better able to handle
the pressures associated with these activities. A nuclear-oriented
course which puts ethics at the centre of professional practice
is also more likely to appeal to young people considering careers
in the nuclear industry.
In the last few years there has been an increase
in university education and research activity in the nuclear area,
which some believe could be a platform for the UK to provide the
necessary training for a new generation of nuclear engineers,
in order to ease concerns about the skills base.
Undergraduate degrees in physics can contain
a good range of nuclear physics, through taught courses, laboratory
and project work. The IOP's Core of Physics, setting out
the requirements for an accredited physics degree, includes a
set of requirements for nuclear physics coverage.[10]
Physics graduates can move easily across into nuclear engineering
areas, and are often considered to be the most versatile graduates.
We understand that there are several new nuclear-related undergraduate
programmes in the pipeline, planned to be introduced at Lancaster
University, Imperial College London and the University of Surrey.
Until recently there was a significant period
of time when the only UK graduate course for nuclear power technology
was the MSc Physics and Technology of Nuclear Reactors based in
the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham.[11]
This course provides the necessary background, both in breadth
and in depth, for anyone wishing to enter the nuclear industry
(in fact, Birmingham has a partnering agreement with the UK nuclear
industry for the course). More recently, there are a few other
universities, such as Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester that
offer relevant MSc courses. Based at the University of Manchester,
the Dalton Nuclear Institute[12]
regularly offers MSc project placements within its nuclear research
groups, for a three-month duration, which provide an excellent
opportunity to get hands-on experience of undertaking research.
The University of Surrey offers similar opportunities on its MSc
in Radiation and Environmental Protection,[13]
which has been running for 30 years with strong support from AWE
and others, where graduates are eagerly sought. (Current support
for MSc placements from industry is generally offered at the expense
of companies, since supplementary projects are generated for placement
students, which cannot be employed on actual fee-earning industrial
projects because of time, commercial and confidentiality issues.)
Furthermore, both the School of Physics and
Astronomy at the University of Birmingham and the Dalton Nuclear
Institute are part of the Nuclear Technology Education Consortium
(NTEC[14]).
This is one of several initiatives funded by the EPSRC to address
the immediate skills shortage in the nuclear industry. The NTEC
comprises 11 institutions offering postgraduate education in nuclear
science and technology for graduates from a general science background.
The portfolio of courses has been designed through close consultation
with the industry and it covers both reactor technology and nuclear
decommissioning areas. The delivery format makes it ideal for
use by those already employed in the industry either as a route
to a postgraduate award or for CPD purposes. The core modules
are also offered in distance-learning format. The number of new
UK graduates coming through this programme is limited only by
EPSRC-funding (limited to 10 studentships per year, funding only
secure until 2008-09). Almost all students coming through this
programme have either gone into the nuclear industry or into academic
research. More students apply to the NTEC than there are places
funded, and the programme has the capacity to expand considerably
if funding for fees and stipends were made available. When the
Consort reactor closes,[15]
the NTEC is the only place in the UK that offers experimental
reactor physics training on a working reactor (the TRIGA reactor
in Vienna).
The Nuclear Engineering Doctorate is a programme
run by a national consortium of six universities.[16]
The scope includes reactor technology, materials and safety systems
and is marketed to students from the various backgrounds, such
as: aerospace; chemical; chemistry; civil; computer science; materials;
mechanical; and physics. This confirms the point that the skills
needed are much broader than just "nuclear engineering".
The programme provides outstanding students with intensive, broadly-based
training in collaboration with industrial companies to prepare
them for senior roles in the nuclear industry. Few "research
engineers" entering this programme have a standard engineering
background. A good fraction start off as physicists and either
convert on the NTEC or Birmingham MSc, or join the Nuclear EngD
programme directly.
The UK's supply of nuclear engineers is dependent
on a healthy nuclear physics research community, which provides
a large part of the nuclear training and education at undergraduate,
masters and doctorate-level. The UK currently has nine university
based nuclear physics research groups at Birmingham, Brighton,
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Paisley (ie University
of the West of Scotland), Surrey, and York. Academic nuclear physics
has had limited support from the research councils and has had
no direct involvement in any of the major facilities needed for
research in this area. This situation compares poorly with other
European countries. Moving the funding of nuclear physics to the
STFC provides an opportunity to strengthen the academic base,
developing a long-term strategy for the subject. This is important
in terms of training at postgraduate level and attracting undergraduates
to this area.
Research programmes such as "Keeping the
Nuclear Option Open"[17]
and "Sustainability Assessment of Nuclear Power",[18]
funded by the EPSRC, are helping universities to maintain their
research groups and recruit new staff which is an important part
of addressing the UK's skills issue.
The aforementioned progress being made to address
the skills issues is very encouraging, coupled with the planned
establishment of the National Nuclear Laboratory, based around
the British Technology Centre at Sellafield. But it is vital that
this progress continues and gathers momentum, as it will make
an important contribution to retaining key nuclear skills in the
UK. However, the government needs to monitor the situation, and
must encourage more of the same, given the scale of the skills
challenge and the fact that many of the key people are close to
retirement just as the industry could be embarking on a new build
programme.
Before its reorganisation in 2005, BNFL provided
a strategic view on UK skills and expertise, responding to any
at-risk areas directly by establishing university research alliances.
Examples included Radiochemistry (Manchester), Waste Immobilisation
(Sheffield: Immobilisation Science Laboratory), Particle and Colloid
Science (Leeds), and Materials Performance (UMIST, now Manchester).
A small group of BNFL representatives made the case to the EPSRC
for the need to support education and research initiatives in
well-defined nuclear technology areas. The UK has now lost this
strategic thought and leadership, as well as the source of funding
for industrial research. Nexia Solutions, BNFL's own R&D organisation,
has also been left in a perilous state.
The value in training a new generation of nuclear
engineers versus bringing expertise in from elsewhere
The nuclear skills base may need to be supplemented
by the international supply chain, but the government's focus
should be on a core UK workforce, for reasons of cost, sustainability,
and national energy security.
It would be wrong to assume that there is an
international pool of staff from which the UK could easily recruit;
rather, we are potentially behind the game and will have to compete
even to retain scientists and engineers trained in the UK from
working overseas. There will be intense international competition
for skills. For example, China, Finland, France and India are
all planning new build, and it has been suggested that Russia
alone is planning 40 new nuclear power stations; other countries
are already building up their own staffing accordingly. Companies
such as Westinghouse in the US and Areva in France are seeking
to recruit very large numbers of nuclear trained personnel. Westinghouse
recruited over 800 people globally in 2007 and expect to take
on well over 1,000 in 2008. The French INSTN has taken a major
step forward by organising the "International School in Nuclear
Engineering: Doctoral-level Courses in Advanced Nuclear Science",[19]
launched in 2007 to recruit and retain highly qualified staff.
Furthermore, the UK's position in the international competition
for skills will be exacerbated by the attraction of working for
a company which designs as well as builds the reactors, rather
than a subsidiary which helps build or decommission them.
In response, it is encouraging to note that
the Dalton Nuclear Institute plans to establish a new Centre for
Nuclear Energy Technology (C-NET),[20]
which will aim to develop professionals with the skills to work
in the global nuclear industry and will provide access to high-quality,
independent academic research.
The ERP found during its private sector interviews
that all employers were recruiting abroad for skilled roles. Furthermore,
they found that:
"In four of these [companies] this is a
business strategy due to the global nature of the business, in
nine it was due to a lack of available skills in the UK. In three
of these companies this was a recent (up to three years ago) move
due to inability to fill roles in the UK. This was also the experience
of two companies in their research involvement; two companies
stated that they look abroad due to a shortage in a particular
niche area, an example given being boiler engineering."
"The Henley report ... concludes that the
best UK graduates are probably broadly comparable globally, although
it notes the high quality of those engineering graduates from
overseas universities that UK firms do encounter. However, ...
this is so far not seen as significantly problematic for retention,
and indeed one company recruits a significant number of non-home
students and believes this is a sustainable, reliable source of
very skilled labour."
It is already certain that the design of any
new-build power station will be international, given that all
four designs submitted for consideration (AP1000,[21]
EPR,[22]
ESBWR[23]
and Advanced Candu[24])
are owned by non-UK companies. The UK's nuclear industry will
need to be an "intelligent" owner of the plant once
it has been completed, which will require a body of appropriately
qualified staff. Even for a standard international reactor design,
continuous demonstration that the plant is meeting all appropriate
UK safety and environmental requirements requires detailed knowledge
both of the plant itself and of the UK regulatory regimes.
It is essential to exercise skills in areas
where the UK is recognised as a world leader, but also necessary
to build skills in areas new to the UK. Such a skills base could
be fundamental in the future for providing potential licensing
and subsequent reactor operating activities within the UK for
new reactor types.
As well as international competition for skills,
there is competition from other sectors within the UK for the
skills required by the nuclear industry. In seeking to ensure
a "critical mass" of students are recruited to various
programmes in US Universities, the Nuclear Engineering Department
Heads Organization (NEDHO) recommended that nuclear engineering
departments in universities should "... diversify their activities
while at the same time continuing to offer nuclear engineering
curricula and maintaining their core competencies in nuclear power",[25]
in order that courses might survive in the face of declining recruitment
at that time. It is not surprising that the broad scope of courses
has led to graduates looking beyond the nuclear industry for employment.
Competition for skills is also found, for example,
in the application of nuclear techniques for diagnosis and treatment
in medicine. In the study of materials, neutron scattering techniques-whether
based on reactors or spallation sources-requires staff with a
strong understanding of nuclear methods and modelling. Defence
and homeland security also call upon the same recruitment pool
and there is, finally, the ongoing experience that the financial
world finds the skills of nuclear trained students attractive-and
the students find the rewards in the financial world attractive
too.
The role that engineers will play in shaping the
UK's nuclear future and whether nuclear power proves to be economical
viable
The nuclear industry currently plays a key role
in the UK economy, employing 50,000 directly and supporting many
additional jobs. A new build programme will offer opportunities
to maintain and grow this work force, while keeping alive the
knowledge and expertise that has been built up.
The UK government has concluded that nuclear
energy has a part to play in the UK's energy mix and it is clear
that a range of other countries are taking similar decisions.
In a world where there is increasing competition for dwindling
fossil fuel resources and pressure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions,
the nuclear technologist has a significant role to play in ensuing
that a viable, convenient and affordable source of electricity
remains available to the UK population.
A brief summary of the role of engineers and
scientists in the UK's nuclear future is as follows:
- Safety, both in (i) the study of safety
related issues such as loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCA) or severe
reactor accidents, and (ii) case preparation and management, which
demands intimate knowledge of facility design.
- Operation of the plant in the most economic,
yet safe manner over the longest possible time.
- Life extension assessment and reactor plant
evolution to meet future requirements of licensing and operational
demands.
- Nuclear data measurement and evaluation,
required for understanding of newer materials and concepts.
- Participation in the international programmes
of reactor development, such as the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership
(GNEP[26]),
in order to maintain skills and expertise and be prepared to benefit
from future developments.
- Materials science of nuclear fuels and
other materials, in order to understand the way that these materials
behave under longer burn-up and higher irradiation reactor conditions.
- Waste issues such as fuel cycle chemistry,
partitioning and transmutation, in order to reduce the burden
on waste disposal; and associated technologies such as accelerator
driven systems (ADS).
- Future concepts such as nuclear-generated
hydrogen economy, as there will be a need to move to an electricity-based
energy economy, which will need substantial change in transport
and heating.
- Multi-scale modelling and simulation, which
underpins most of the topics above and also demands significant
computing skills.
The overlap between nuclear engineers in the power
sector and the military
Nuclear power and nuclear weapons share a significant
number of fields of interest whether from the experimental or
modelling aspects. There is a significant overlap in the skills
requirements of the two areas, with traffic of expertise between
them.
It is clear that the various companies involved
in the UK naval reactor programme are all too aware of the potential
for new build to compete with their recruitment needs.
March 2008
3 Nuclear Power: Keeping the Option Open, The Institute
of Physics; June 2003; www.iop.org/activity/policy/Events/Seminars/file_3514.pdf Back
4
An Essential Programme to Underpin Government Policy on Nuclear
Power, Nuclear Task Force, 2003 Back
5
www.cogent-ssc.com/research/Publications/Archived_Publications/Nuclear_Employers_Survey.pdf Back
6
www.energyresearchpartnership.org.uk/erp.php?sid=1 Back
7
Investigation into high-level skills shortages in the energy sector,
Energy Research Partnership Back
8
www.nuclear.nsacademy.co.uk/ Back
9
www.cogent-ssc.com/cogent_family/NSAN.php Back
10
The Physics Degree; www.iop.org Back
11
www.ph.bham.ac.uk/prospective/postgrad/pgptnr.htm Back
12
www.dalton.manchester.ac.uk Back
13
www.ph.surrey.ac.uk/msc/rep Back
14
www.ntec.ac.uk/ Back
15
Strategic decision of Imperial College London to close to commercial
operations by the end of March 08 and shut down within a few months,
although this is being kept under review. Back
16
www.manchester.ac.uk/engd Back
17
www.epsrc.ac.uk/ResearchFunding/Programmes/Energy/Funding/TSEC/KeepingTheNuclearOptionOpen.htm Back
18
http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/ViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/F001444/1 Back
19
www-instn.cea.fr/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=176 Back
20
www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/index.htm?id=132502 Back
21
Westinghouse: http://ap1000.westinghousenuclear.com/index.html Back
22
www.edfenergy.com/html/showPage.do?name=edfenergy.media.news.item.til&cmsPage=/opencms/export/www.edfenergy.com/media/news/20080110.html Back
23
GE Energy: www.gepower.com/prod_serv/products/nuclear_energy/en/new_reactors/esbwr.htm Back
24
www.aecl.ca Back
25
Manpower Supply and Demand in the Nuclear Industry, Nuclear
Engineering Department Heads Organization (NEDHO), 1999
www-ners.engin.umich.edu/NEDHO/publications/manpower_report/Manpower_report2-17.pdf Back
26
www.gnep.energy.gov Back
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