Memorandum 100
Submission by Westinghouse Electric Company
1. 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 nuclear industry is facing a growing demand
for skilled and semi-skilled labour, just at the time that many
employees are set to retire. The demand comes from both the continuing
need to address the challenges of cleaning up the nuclear waste
legacy (including decommissioning of the UK's Magnox fleet) and
from the skills requirements related to a prospective new generation
of nuclear plants. This latter prospect was given a strong boost
by the Government's January 2008 Nuclear White Paper, which concluded
that such new nuclear plants would be in the public interest,
although it is left to the private sector to fund and deliver
them.
There are a number of strands to the "engineering
capability" needed to ensure that a new generation of nuclear
plants can be built and operated safely successfully. However-one
area where significant numbers of skilled professionals is NOT
required is that of reactor design. The global nuclear industry
is moving towards the deployment of standard internationally-recognised
designs, and the requirement in the UK that new nuclear build
be funded in full by the private sector strengthens that driver
still further. Four designs are currently going through a rigorous
assessment of their safety and environmental acceptability, together
with a careful review of security and other considerations. Each
of these is a design developed for the global market, rather than
a plant customised for the UK.
In terms of the engineering and technical skills
to deliver a new nuclear build programme, these can be broadly
split into three areas:
Firstly, in the immediate near -term, there is
a need for regulatory expertise to carry out the safety, environmental
and other assessments of the candidate reactor designs. Already
the number of designs which can be assessed on a realistic timescale
has been limited to three by the scarcity of resource. The current
list of four is to be scaled back over the coming weeks. Although
the regulators have initiated an active campaign of recruitment,
there remain significant concerns over whether enough of the right
calibre of staff can be identified and brought on board quickly
enough. We are pleased to see that Government have committed to
keep this issue under review.
Secondly, there is a need to ensure that the
skills are in place within the UK supply chain and construction
industry to deliver any new nuclear plants to time and cost. It
is likely that-if new nuclear build does go ahead-the construction
of the first plant would start around 2013. This timing means
that construction workers from the 2012 London Olympics programme
can be expected to be available for such a project, so with careful
planning this should not be an issue. Likewise, this timing allows
the UK supply chain to "gear up" ready to play a significant
role in any new reactor construction.
Finally, the question arises of operating staff
to work at a new power station once it is ready to produce electricity.
On the timescale noted above, operation would be likely to commence
around 2018, which is ample time for the industry to identify
and retrain individuals with relevant skills from the existing
nuclear plants scheduled to have closed down by that date.
In short, therefore, the industry should be
able to plan to resource the building and operation of new nuclear
plants, provided that the licensing effort can be found to take
the leading designs through the Generic Design Assessment process
on time.
In addition, it should be noted that there are
a number of recent initiatives, aimed at helping to ensure the
availability of nuclear skills for both new build and legacy cleanup
programmes. These include:
- The National Skills Academy for Nuclear,
launched in January 2008. Westinghouse plays a key role in this
development, with a seat on the Board, and the Chairmanship of
the NW/NE Employer Steering Group.
- The Dalton Nuclear Institute at Manchester
University, and the new Centre in Nuclear Energy Technology (CNET)
based there. Westinghouse has close links with both the Dalton
institute and CNET.
- The University of Central Lancashire's
(UCLan's) John Tyndall Centre for Nuclear Research.
- The Lancaster University Chair in Nuclear
Engineering and Decommissioning, launched recently in association
with Lloyd's Register Educational Trust.
All of these are important initiatives, and
are most welcome, but it is important that the momentum is maintained
to replenish retiring workers from the nuclear industry (of whom
there will be many over the coming few years) and to build up
new and strengthened capabilities to address the two missions
of new build and legacy cleanup. Continuing Government scrutiny
and encouragement is likely to be needed to ensure that the necessary
progress is maintained.
2. The value in training a new generation
of nuclear engineers versus bringing expertise in from elsewhere
In addressing this point, it is important to
recognise that the UK is not the only country contemplating a
revival of nuclear energy. The.same issues are driving countries
all around the world, from China to the US, from Finland to South
Africa, to consider the benefits of new nuclear plants.
The UK therefore competes in a global market
for skills-not just as a potential beneficiary of skilled workers
moving into the UK, but as a potential source of such skills for
other nations. We cannot assume either that we will be able to
attract skilled nuclear engineers to the UK from overseas in great
numbers, any more than we can expect to retain all of the engineers
who are trained up in the UK.
That said, there are also reasons why it is
important to have our own capability, trained within the UK to
serve the UK market. Whilst it is clear that any new reactor built
in the UK will be a standard global design, with an international
pedigree, it is also clear that such designs must be shown to
meet all relevant UK legislation in respect of nuclear safety,
environmental performance, and so on. Such assessment-which Westinghouse
and other vendors are already engaged in-requires both the detailed
technical knowledge of the design (which can, at least to an extent,
be brought in from overseas) coupled with the detailed understanding
of UK practices and requirements, which is only likely to be found
in this country.
The same principle applies when reactors have
passed through design assessment and into construction, commissioning
and operation.
3. The role that engineers will play in shaping
the UK's nuclear future and whether nuclear power proves to be
economical viable
Many of the points related to this question
have been addressed earlier in this response. Without a much greater
supply of nuclear technicians, scientists and engineers, at all
levels, it will be very difficult for the UK to deliver the planned
cleanup programmes and simultaneously to bring new nuclear build
onto operation on schedule.
The economic viability of nuclear energy will
be determined by a whole range of factors, but it is clear that
the private sector will not wish to invest in an industry where
the skillbase needed to build plants to timescale, and then to
ensure safe and efficient operation of those facilities, cannot
be assured with confidence over the plant's operating lifetime.
4. The overlap between nuclear engineers in
the power sector and the military
We recognise that some of the basis skills and
capabilities relating to nuclear energy are common to both the
civil generation and military sectors (in particular in relation
to nuclear propulsion units in Naval applications). Neither sector
however has an overcapacity of skills which can be used to offset
a shortage elsewhere.
Equally-whilst the basic technologies might
be similar in many respects, and whilst skills such as safety
assessment and reactor operation might be common, the operating
environments are totally different and the different considerations
to be balanced are not necessarily transferable with ease.
The operation of a civil power reactor in a
commercial environment is vastly different from the operation
of, for example, a nuclear powered submarine in a military situation.
The transfer of skills between the two sectors must always be
done with careful regard to the cultural issues and with appropriate
re-training.
March 2008
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