Skills threat to nuclear expansion

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Skill shortages in the nuclear industry due to the industry’s ageing workforce could lead to government plans for new power stations being delayed, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned, writes Dean Carroll

Despite the opening of a nuclear skills academy in Cumbria and new plans for a National Nuclear Laboratory, concerns have been raised over the capacity of the UK to deliver and regulate the PM’s preferred energy source.

"We have a real demographic problem because 40 per cent of our staff are over the age of 60," said Bill Macdonald, of the HSE nuclear directorate. "We are struggling to get enough specialists; you can’t train them from nothing. If it takes longer, it takes longer. The programme will be put back; the government don’t like it."

Four companies have bid so far to build the new nuclear stations, which are expected to cost £3bn each and have a lifespan of 100 years. They are EDF/Areva, Westinghouse GE Hitachi, and AECL, which has now withdrawn.

The HSE is charging the firms £15m, which is non-refundable, to evaluate their initial proposals through generic design assessments (GDA). The GDA process is likely to take at least three years, with technical plans assessed before licences for specific sites are considered.

"The idea is to gradually increase the level of scrutiny. People want to see checks and balances and we have put a lot in place that weren’t there before," explained Macdonald. "We will end up displeasing somebody but our primary objective is to make sure they are safe."

He revealed that none of the bids to date had included "showstoppers that would prevent us from building them".

In a move towards greater transparency, all of the proposals have been put on the HSE’s interactive website. It includes a facility allowing people to provide feedback. "We need to take the public with us, we need a democracy of ideas as the nuclear industry has been too secretive," said Macdonald. "We are pushing the companies to be as open as they can and we are going to redesign the website in plain English. We have not had many comments so far and we are a bit deflated. The public interest will develop when the individual sites are announced but we want to engage communities now."