Memorandum 111
Submission from Sellafield Limited
SUMMARY
This submission, in support of the Innovation,
Universities and Skills Select Committee case study into nuclear
engineering, is provided by Sellafield Limited and is consistent
with their 2008 Skills Strategy.
Sellafield Limited directly employees approximately
11,000 full time equivalent staff based primarily at three locations:
West Cumbria, Risley (near Warrington), and Capenhurst (near Chester).
It works closely with the Sector Skills Council (SSC) covering
Nuclear technologies (Cogent), and the National Skills Academy
Nuclear (NSAN) in their aim to support a sustainable future for
the UK Nuclear industry. Sellafield Limited has also been consulted
as part of the Sector Skills Council submission to this committee.
The key Sellafield Limited findings are:
- Sellafield Ltd has a relatively stable
workforce for the majority of its skill sets; the Lifetime plan
shows a continuing requirement for engineers and scientists at
levels similar to the present to support existing Operations.
Significant retraining of the workforce to support decommissioning
is expected in approximately eight to 10 years.
- The next five years present a specific
resource challenge with increased demand for engineering design,
project and commissioning resources to deliver the projects to
remediate the site and meet the Regulatory Specifications. This
is in the context of an increasingly competitive market place
for resources with these skills and is impacting on market rates
which are rising at approximately 10% per annum.
- Sellafield Limited is currently experiencing
shortages for Safety Case specialists and market rates are leading
to higher than acceptable levels of attrition.
- Government support is required to sustain
the development of the skills base through the provision of additional
funding. Specifically, the number of scheduled retirements for
the Sellafield Limited workforce over the next 20 years is rising
and investment is needed to develop new staff across all skill
sets and in particular to meet the demand for engineers and scientists.
This is likely to coincide with potential new nuclear build requirements.
- Skills planning is a strategic imperative
for Sellafield Limited; who are working closely with the Sector
Skills Council to ensure the right framework is in place for training
and development of its workforce.
CHALLENGES FACING
SELLAFIELD LIMITED
1. Sellafield have not been able to recruit
the number of engineering design resources required and the supply
chain has also had issues. The number and quality of engineering
design resources has been a factor in extending project schedules.
A stronger technical community is also required to deal with the
technical risks posed by the projects. Sellafield has not been
able to ramp up in terms of the commissioning resources needed
to meet demand. This is of particular concern because the organisation
has a small current population of this skill set.
2. In addition to the Remediation work which
creates a need for new assets, Sellafield has many unique bespoke
plants and requires a stable and experienced professional workforce
to operate, maintain and improve these assets. The main plants
are no longer new, and many of the staff who developed the processes,
and designed and built the plants have retired. As the plants
are currently forecast to be in operation for many years, stability
and the ability to maintain succession is at least as important
as was historically the case.
3. At post-graduate level, there is a focus
on courses specifically targeted at the nuclear industry. However
there is some merit in attracting graduates with a sound basis
in engineering principles. Many of Sellafield Limited facilities
are bespoke and the organisation needs to develop those nuclear
skills with support from education providers. The requirement
is often the ability to engineer from first principles.
4. The nuclear technology supply chain is
more fragmented than was historically the case, and there are
fewer scientists and engineers employed in nuclear related R&D.
The in depth knowledge base of the Sellafield plants and processes
therefore tends to reside with less people that in previous decades,
and Sellafield is reliant on this smaller group of experts. Some
disciplines are receiving attention to reduce vulnerabilities.
Formal establishment of the National Nuclear Laboratory with a
partnering approach to maintain capability is an important contributor
to ensuring the required future support capability.
5. There is very little fundamental research
and the number of people involved in Research and Development
across the industry is much lower than 20 years ago. It is unclear
as to whether this level of resource affects our ability to be
innovative now and support future developments.
6. Specifically, active facility availability
is reduced relative to historic, with no current decision to make
the British Technology Centre (BTC) phases 2 and 3 active. Facility
availability is an important factor in the development and retention
of the future experts.
7. Regarding new reactor build, fuel development
activities, should they be required, could be carried out for
uranium fuels at Springfields, and mixed plutonium/uranium fuel
at Sellafield. The BTC phase 2 facilities have the capability
to conduct plutonium/uranium fuel research should a decision be
made to make them active.
8. In recognition of the above challenges,
Sellafield Limited has conducted and will continue to conduct
detailed reviews of the gaps in nuclear skills. As a result, Sellafield
has developed bespoke academic and non- academic training programmes.
Examples include a foundation degree in Nuclear De-commissioning
and a Team Leader Development Programme.
SKILLS AND
RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS
IN RELATION
TO THE
SELLAFIELD LIMITED
LIFETIME PLAN
Immediate and Short Term
Sellafield Limited is experiencing difficulty
in attracting and retaining specific skills due to market pressures
and a shortfall in the availability of those skills. The skills
affected are in engineering design (all disciplines), commissioning,
project management and programme control.
There is an immediate shortage of safety case
specialists, in particular, and, given the length of time to train
and develop these skills, this may impact the programme of work.
The requirement for these skills continues throughout
the Lifetime Plan.
Medium Term (five to 10 years)
The extension of the operational lives of THORP
and Magnox Reprocessing, entails that it will be necessary to
maintain the workforce at the current levels, with the necessary
plant and nuclear safety knowledge for longer than originally
expected.
Sellafield Limited is expected to experience
demographic issues and there will be a need to replenish staff.
There is a need to retain sufficient plant and nuclear knowledge
beyond operations into Post Operations Clean Out (POCO) and the
Initial Decommissioning phases.
Long Term (over 10 years)
The extension of THORP and Magnox Reprocessing
operating lives and the consequential delays to decommissioning
programmes means that the major transition of the workforce into
a predominantly decommissioning phase is delayed. The workforce
will need to be retrained in decommissioning skills. If there
is limited investment in UK Nuclear Skills, then by 2020, Sellafield
Limited is expected to experience significant resource shortfalls.
July 2003
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