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Nuclear Education and TrainingKey Elements of a Sustainable European Strategy

December 2010

Working Groupon Education,

Training and Knowledge

Management(ETKM)

S u s t a i n a b l e N u c l e a r E n e r g y Te c h n o l o g y P l a t f o r m 3

This document has been prepared by theETKM Working Group within theSustainable Nuclear Energy Technology

Platform.

Contact: [email protected]

Preamble

The Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform ET

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Education and training are key to thesustainability of the nuclear industry,and this is truer today than at anypoint in the past. With lifetime

extensions of many existing nuclear powerplants, the growing demands fordecommissioning and nuclear waste disposalsolutions, the growth of the industry worldwide,and an ageing workforce, the shortage ofappropriately educated and trained personnelrisks becoming a severe constraint. In view ofthe strong competition from other hi-techindustries and the lower appeal of science andengineering degrees in general, meeting theindustry’s growth and accommodating an ageingworkforce are challenges needing a cohesive andintegrated strategy for the whole nuclear sector.Education and training has always been a keyconcern within nuclear energy programmes andthe respective requirements and obligations havebeen laid down in key documents such as theEURATOM Treaty and the Convention onNuclear Safety. More recently, the Council ofthe European Union (EU) considered thespecific challenges related to the currentsituation at its 2891st Competitiveness Councilmeeting1. The Council’s conclusions make anumber of observations and conclusions,highlighting challenges such as:■ the lack of engineers and researchers in scientific

sectors;■ the need to take appropriate measures to ensure

that nuclear energy remains a safe option in thoseMember States that have chosen or will choose it;

■ the long-term availability of qualified humanresources in view of the continued exploitation ofnuclear energy in several Member States, whereby152 reactors currently supply the EU with 31% ofits electricity;

■ the need for and the importance of training andteaching of skills through involvement in R&D inall subject areas: design and construction,radiation protection, radioactive waste and

materials management, operation of installationsand decommissioning;

■ the age profile within the workforce, in particularthe many retirements likely in the short term;

pointing out that:- there is a real risk of the loss of nuclear knowledge

for the European Union if no measures are taken,and

- preservation of skills in the nuclear field requires ageneral effort involving public and private playersand in particular the nuclear industry.

The Council further highlighted needs such as:■ the creation of appropriate conditions for mutual

recognition of nuclear professional qualificationsthroughout the EU;

■ a review of professional qualifications and skills inthe nuclear field for the EU, paving the way fordrawing up a pan-European chart of skills andknowledge relating to occupations in the nuclearfield to facilitate the mobility of employees;

■ reinforcing the teaching of basic scientific skills inpreparation for energy-related occupations, andgiving a new impetus to the teaching ofmathematics, physics and chemistry at every level;

■ developing generally the provision ofprogrammes in different languages specificallygeared to energy-related and especially nuclear-related occupations;

■ assessing ways of attracting more European andnon-European students to these programmes byimproving the competitiveness of scientific andtechnical careers in public and private companieswithin the EU;

■ equipping European universities and institutionsinvolved in nuclear-related teaching programmeswith the capacity to accept such students;

■ where necessary extending the network ofinstitutions and universities offering this type ofteaching, and ensuring mutual recognition ofqualifications obtained in other Member States;

5S u s t a i n a b l e N u c l e a r E n e r g y Te c h n o l o g y P l a t f o r m

1 - Council of the EuropeanUnion, Conclusions on theNeed for Skills in theNuclear Field, 2891stCompetitiveness (InternalMarket, Industry andResearch) Council Meeting1&2 December 2008,Brussels

■ improving the visibility of European nucleartraining as currently organised in associations andnetworks, which constitutes a recognised globalreference;

■ making available common European technicaldocumentation and teaching material, inparticular through the use of new informationtechnologies.

The present challenges for nuclear educationand training were also highlighted at the 2009G8 Summit (G8 NSSG)2. The communiquélargely addressed institutional capacity buildingfor countries embarking on nuclear powerprogrammes. The NSSG Italian Presidencystated:- special attention to the issue of education and training

(E&T), as an essential tool to build capacity at theinstitutional level, including the establishment of anadequate and sustainable regulatory framework wasneeded. These countries need to ensure that they arein a position to implement their programmes incompliance with existing international instruments andinternationally recognised safety standards andsecurity guidelines;

- countries planning to initiate nuclear programmesneed to develop the supporting national infrastructurein order to meet safety, security and safeguardsrequirements as a long-term commitment;

- the development of institutional capacity is agovernment responsibility. E&T is an essential buildingblock in the build-up of capacity at the institutionallevel, and in the establishment of an adequate andsustainable legal and regulatory framework;

- with respect to institutional capacity-building, E&Tneeds to focus on the legislative and regulatoryframework, nuclear safety, safeguards, security andphysical protection, radiation safety, emergencypreparedness and response, and radioactive wasteplanning.

It is also worth recalling in this context the EU'srecent Nuclear Safety Directive3, a major steptowards establishing a common legally bindingEU framework for the safety of nuclearinstallations. In Article 7, devoted to expertiseand skills in nuclear safety, the Directive states:“Member States shall ensure that the nationalframework in place requires arrangements foreducation and training to be made by all parties fortheir staff having responsibilities relating to thenuclear safety of nuclear installations in order tomaintain and to further develop expertise and skillsin nuclear safety.”

The ETKM Working Group has considered thesituation in more detail, in particular theidentifying of recent developments, whether anygaps are apparent and what developments arestill needed.This report reviews the challenges related tonuclear education and training, the initiativesrecently undertaken to meet them, and thefuture needs with regard to the present daysituation and the expected future developments.It identifies common ground between theseinitiatives, the approaches to address current andfuture needs and recommends appropriateactions.

N u c l e a r E d u c a t i o n a n d Tr a i n i n g - K e y E l e m e n t s o f a S u s t a i n a b l e E u r o p e a n S t r a t e g y6

2 - G8 NSSG NuclearEducation and Training -Institutional Capacity-Building, 2009,http://www.g8italia2009.it/G8/Home/Summit/G8-G8_Layout_locale-1199882116809_Atti.htm

3 - Council Directive2009/71/Euratom, Brussels,25 June 2009

The ETKM Working Group


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The European Sustainable NuclearEnergy Technology Platform(SNETP) was created in September2007 by stakeholders of the nuclear

sector (industry, research organisations,universities, technical safety organisations,learned societies and other Europeanorganisations) to accelerate the research anddevelopment and deployment of fissiontechnologies in Europe. The Platform assists inthe efficient co-ordination of European,national, regional and local research,development and deployment programmes andinitiatives and ensures a balanced and activeparticipation of the major stakeholders. It helpsto develop awareness of the role that nuclearfission energy plays in Europe’s current energymix, and could play in Europe’s future low-carbon energy mix. It helps foster future co-operation, both within the EU and on a globalscale.

In parallel with the development of the StrategicResearch Agenda (SRA) and DeploymentStrategy, it was agreed that work on education,training and knowledge management should bean important cross-cutting activity within theSNETP agenda. The Working Group onEducation, Training and KnowledgeManagement (ETKM) was established to deal

with this area in close co-operation with theStrategic Research Agenda and DeploymentStrategy Working Groups (Figure 1 - p 38).

The objectives of the ETKM Working Groupwere initially agreed to address theseconcerns/challenges with specific reference:

■ to identify a course of action to secure an adequateresource of well educated and trained youngprofessionals to support the researchrecommended in the SRA;

■ to identify the steps required to meet the demandof industry and R&D organisations for newcompetent personnel and the need for teachers inacademia;

■ to collate the facilities, both existing and required,to develop the future human resource necessary tosupport the SRA.

The initial work of the ETKM Working Groupclearly indicated that the challenges and needsof the nuclear industry transcend beyond theresearch community to include operations,health and safety and many other activities thatunderpin the industry. This resulted in ageneralisation of the Working Group’sobjectives to enable the broader group of EUnuclear stakeholders to be accommodated andnot specifically address the SRA needs.



Table of contents


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2.1 The Situation in the Late 1990s 132.2 Progress to Date 132.3 New Needs and Opportunities 17

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4.1 Identifying Knowledge, Skills Profiles and Gaps 254.2 Education and Training Programmes 274.3 Infrastructures 304.4 International Cooperation 32

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1. Introduction


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Nuclear education and training hasalways been closely related to theuse of nuclear energy. Recognisingthe scientific and interdisciplinary

dimensions of nuclear technology and the highsignificance of human qualification for its safeuse, all major nuclear energy programmesincluded the establishment of an education andtraining (E&T) infrastructure in parallel to thegrowth of the industry. Generally the currentE&T infrastructure can be traced back to theneeds of the research programmes in the 1950sand 1960s.

The evolution of the nuclear industry howeverhas not been smooth, the ups and downs in theindustrial perspectives influenced theattractiveness of nuclear technology for studentsand the growth and decline of the nucleareducation and training infrastructure. Aparticular problem was the strong public andpolitical opposition to nuclear energy after theaccidents at Three Mile Island (1979) andChernobyl (1986) and the resulting stagnationin the building of nuclear capacities in the 1980sand 1990s. These effects were particularly strongin Europe and North America. SeveralEuropean countries took political decisionseither to phase out existing nuclear programmesor scale back further expansion.

These developments resulted in tremendousmanpower challenges for the nuclear energysector. With the declining expectations innuclear energy and a dramatic loss ofemployment opportunities, the attractiveness ofnuclear professions for students decreased toextremely low levels. The investment in teachingnuclear engineering and in nuclear researchdeclined, many undergraduate and post graduateprogrammes were discontinued, researchreactors and other facilities needed for nucleareducation were closed.

The significance of the related challenges wasincreasingly recognised towards the end of the1990s. The shortage of young engineers and

scientists to replace the older generation ofnuclear engineers approaching retirement wouldcreate a very difficult situation not only for thepotential revival of nuclear energy but also forthe continued safe operation of existing plants.

This is an unprecedented challenge caused by anaging work force, increased competition forqualified and experienced workers coupled witha precarious skills supply chain. Many nuclearenergy Member States acknowledge that theirindustry manpower shortfall over the nextdecade is measured in thousands and theseestimates in many instances exclude skillsneeded for new-build. The relevant skills areacross the complete spectrum of the industryand include regulatory, legislative organisationsalong with operators, R&D, consultants, serviceproviders, engineering organisations andeducational establishments all needing toincrease manpower and replenish skills over thenext two decades, either to replace retiring staffand/or prepare for new build.

There has been considerable responseworldwide; a number of special programmeshave been initiated to remediate the situationincluding measures to stabilize academicresearch and building new forms of national andinternational co-operation to raise the quality ofeducation programmes and increase theattractiveness of nuclear education for students.

The problem is not merely one of nuclear energybut is imbedded in a more general issue relatedto the insufficient attractiveness of science,engineering and technology careers in general, aproblem addressed by the European ResearchAdvisory Board (EURAB)4 in 2002. EURABrecommended a variety of initiatives rangingfrom enhancing public awareness of science tostimulating creative teaching of science andtechnology in both primary and secondaryeducation.

The industry has awoken to these challenges;manpower shortfall and shortage of science and


4 - EURAB, ‘Increasing theAttractiveness of Science,Engineering and TechnologyCareers’, Recommendations,02.054 final


engineering disciplines are recognised.Education, in particular tertiary, has re-kindlednew courses, undergraduate recruitment in sci-ence and engineering is on the increase, newprofessional training programmes have beendeveloped, schemes for retaining personnelnear/past retirement age, collaborations betweenthe industry and educational establishments areincreasing, secondments from industry to acade-mia and vice versa to improve understanding isbeing actively promoted, additional researchinvestment both in programmes and infrastruc-tures are showing positive signs and many moreinitiatives are evident.This report deals with the challenges for theeducation and training of the workforce requiredin the nuclear power sector. It describes thestatus of recent nuclear education and traininginitiatives, the resulting achievements, and what

should be done during the coming years toensure sufficient knowledge and skills areavailable for the continued safe operation ofexisting nuclear power plants, for a sustainablegrowth of the European nuclear industry, andfor the key stages of the nuclear fuel cycle.Obviously this scope covers only part of thenuclear education and training issues which aresignificant for the future of nuclear energy.Further important topics are, for instance, theteaching of energy topics in primary andsecondary education, the education of opinionbuilders and communicators, and education andtraining for nuclear non-power applications.The fact that these topics are not addressedwithin this report is not related to their lowersignificance, rather that the ETKM WorkingGroup believes they are not sufficiently close tothe scope of SNETP activities.

2. Current Status


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2.1 The Situation in the Late 1990s

A t the end of the 1990s the nuclear edu-cation situation was quite dramatic inmost OECD countries and particularly

in the EU Member States. It was rather evidentthat the lack of young engineers and scientistswith nuclear qualifications and willing to workin the nuclear industry could very soon becomea problem for the safe long-term operation ofnuclear power plants and a hindrance to thepotential revival of nuclear energy. An importantinternational study by the OECD5 expressedsevere concerns that the situation would put themaintaining of expertise in nuclear science andtechnology at risk. In most countries there weresignificantly fewer comprehensive, high-qualitynuclear technology programmes at universitiesthan before and the ability of universities toattract top-quality students, to meet futurestaffing requirements of the nuclear industryand to conduct leading-edge research was seri-ously compromised. The reports called forimmediate action and recommended a series ofmeasures ranging from revitalising research anddeveloping high quality training to enhancingcollaboration and sharing best practices.

2.2 Progress to Date

There has been a considerable responseduring the last decade in many coun-tries6; special initiatives were started to

maintain infrastructure and personnel fornuclear education at universities as well as tokeep nuclear research as a vehicle for nucleareducation. Particular initiatives worth mention-ing are:■ Efforts of the European Commission and some

European Member States to maintain research innuclear technology and nuclear safety with close

links between the appropriate research andeducation and training.

■ Support by the industry, regulators, and researchcentres to help universities in maintainingacademic education in nuclear technology whenthe number of students would not be sufficient towarrant financial support from governmentand/or education authorities.

■ Building of national and international networkswith the objective to strengthen the co-operationbetween different universities, promote co-operation between universities, research centresand other nuclear stakeholders, facilitate theexchange of information, collaboration and thesharing of best practices in nuclear education andtraining, and make studies in nuclear energy moreattractive for students.

Networking was a natural response to thedecline of educational capacities and nuclearresearch infrastructure. In a situation wherenobody could expect big investments in nucleareducation, where many retiring universityprofessors were not replaced, networkingopened a way to share the remaining resourcesand thus to maintain the quality of nucleareducation at a level which could not be assuredby individual institutions alone.The type of networks varied, depending on theparticular needs and practices of the respectivecountries, regions and institutions. In somecases, for instance, universities co-operated tojointly offer a nuclear education program, inother cases networking focused on co-operationin research and education.


5 - OECD/NEA, NuclearEducation and Training:Cause for Concern?, NuclearEnergy Agency, 2000

6 - Status and Trends inNuclear Education, IAEANuclear Energy Series NoNG-T-6.1, Draft April 2010


7 - ENEN http://www.enen-assoc.org

8 - http://www.enen-assoc.org/en/activities/for-students/master.html

At the European level the European NuclearEducation Network (ENEN Association7) wascreated with a view to establish internationalmodels for co-operation between universitiescapable of increasing the mobility of students innuclear technology and to improve the mutualrecognition of course achievements. Under theumbrella of the Bologna process, ENEN hasinstigated several initiatives that allow easymovement from one country to another withinthe European Higher Education Area – for thepurpose of further study or employment. In2003 its 50 university members agreed andimplemented a reference curriculum and coursecredits for nuclear engineering; now severalmajor European nuclear research institutes aremembers. ENEN is promoting and rewardingstudent mobility by delivering the certificate ofEuropean Master of Science in NuclearEngineering (EMSNE8) to students havingacquired at least 20 credits in a universityabroad. Furthermore, ENEN has linkedteaching and training with research bycontributions to research projects, by organisingadvanced courses for PhDs and youngprofessionals and promoting the exchange ofresearch results and experience at special events,workshops and seminars.

This European Higher Education Areainitiative provides Europe with a broad, highquality and advanced knowledge base, andensures the further development of Europebenefiting from a cutting edge EuropeanResearch Area. Its attractiveness is furtherincreased as many people from non-Europeancountries also come to study and/or work inEurope. To date, ENEN has concludedagreements with universities in South Africa,Japan and the Russian Federation and withnuclear education networks outside Europe tofacilitate mobility of students and mutualrecognition of courses and curricula in nucleardisciplines on a world-wide level.

The networking initiatives contributedsignificantly to stabilizing and revitalizingnuclear education across Europe. The situationremains difficult, however, and the EuropeanNuclear Energy Forum (ENEF), set up by theEuropean Commission in 2007 to bringtogether all concerned stakeholders to discussnuclear issues, has identified nuclear educationas one of highest risks in the nuclear industry.Moreover the nuclear renaissance poses newchallenges for nuclear education as the growthof the industry critically depends on increasingfaster the number of engineers properlyeducated in a wide spectrum of nucleardisciplines.

In view of these needs a growing number ofnuclear organisations have started setting upnew initiatives in line with the Councilconclusions calling for more efforts from publicand private players to preserve the skills in thenuclear field. These new initiatives includeeducation and training programmes as internalprogrammes or as public-private partnerships inco-operation with universities. Typically theseprogrammes are run directly by the respectivestakeholder or by a group of stakeholders,generally with a large international dimension.Some of them are based on partnerships witheducational institutions, labour organisations,community organisations or federal, regionaland local government agencies:

■ In France, for example, EDF created a foundationfor the development of education and training in thefield of energy providing grants for students andfinancing chairs in various academic organisationssuch as École Polytechnique and École Centrale deParis. Chairs in École des Mines des Nantes and inEcole National Supérieure de Chimie in Paris arebeing financed by Areva and Andra. Moreover, theFrench industry, research organisations andacademic organisations co-operate in the creationand the strengthening of educational and initialprofessional programmes such as:

Type of Network Examples

Joint offer of a nucleareducation programme

■ Belgium Nuclear Education Network (BNEN)■ UK Nuclear Technology Education Consortium (NTEC)■ Czech Nuclear Education Network (CENEN)

Co-operation in nuclearresearch and education

■ Italian Consorzio Interuniversitario per la Ricerca Tecnologica sull’ Energia Nucleare (CIRTEN)

■ German Alliance for Nuclear Competence (Kompetenzverbund)

Table : Types of national networks relevant for nuclear education

- an international master degree in nuclear energydelivered by a consortium with ParisTech, UniversityParis-Sud at Orsay, INSTN and mainly supported byEDF and also CEA, AREVA and GDF-Suez;

- education programmes in energy and nucleartechnology at École Nationale Supérieure desTechniques Avancées, École Centrale de Paris,University of Paris VI, Institut NationalPolytechnique de Grenoble, ENSICAEN, morespecialized curricula in chemistry at the EcoleNationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris, ÉcoleNationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier andUniversity of Montpellier II as well as in materials atENSAM in Aix en Provence and ENSCI in Limoges;

- new bachelor degree programmes and morespecialized craft education programmes.

In 2009 AREVA created the AREVA University -together with its campuses in Germany and in theUSA - in the south of France, near Aix-en-Provence. The campus is tasked to host all theengineers and executives recruited by the groupthroughout the world. In-depth classes on AREVAcore skills and its fundamental values, wheresafety and security head the list, will be given.

■ In Germany, all four nuclear utilities are engagedin supporting universities in creating newprofessorships and academic programmes innuclear technology. Moreover they created acommon utility-led international program forgraduates in nuclear technology and managementwhich has operated since 2008 at the TechnicalUniversity Munich.

■ In Finland, the nuclear organisations re-evaluated the man-power situation andestablished an organising committee to developand organise basic post-graduate professionaltraining of new recruits and staff members. A basicprofessional training course on nuclear safety(duration: 6 weeks with 24 full training days) hasbeen organised since 2002. The training aimsspecially for the acute needs of the new nuclearpower plant project, but also to provide in the longterm a new generation of nuclear experts toreplace the generation, which will retire within thenext ten years. The organising committee includedrepresentatives of the following organisations:Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority STUK,nuclear power utilities TVO and Fortum, theTechnical Research Centre of Finland VTT, theLappeenranta (LUT) and Helsinki Universities ofTechnology (TKK, now Aalto University), and theMinistry of Employment and the Economy TEM. Allthe lecturers come from these organisations that

also share all the training positionsrepresentatively. Although the training is partlybased on a similar course developed by the IAEA,it has been adapted to the Finnish conditions. Alarge part of the material is completely new and itcontains also parts tailored for the future needsconnected with increasing generation capacity andnew Gen III type reactors. By 2010, altogether 473persons have participated in the training.

■ In Spain, reinforced joint ventures have beenundertaken at different universities. UniversidadAutonoma de Madrid in close collaboration withCIEMAT (the national research centre on energyand environmental matters) has launched a“Master on Nuclear Engineering and Applications(MINA)”. The Spanish nuclear sector has beendeeply involved both in the financial support andin the definition and teaching of the academicprogram, with a clear leadership in thesupervision of Master theses. This initiative is notunique. The Polytechnic University of Madrid, forinstance, has recently reshaped its nuclear studiesin the form of a Master on Nuclear Science andEngineering. These initiatives have raised agrowing interest in nuclear energy, for example incase of MINA has led to an increase of the studentnumbers by nearly 100% in three editions.

■ In Sweden, the three Swedish nuclear powerplants, Westinghouse and the Swedish RadiationSafety Authority jointly fund education andresearch at KTH, Chalmers and Uppsalauniversities. A joint organisation, SKC, theSwedish Nuclear Technology Centre has beenformed to coordinate these activities.

■ The European Technical Safety Organisations(TSO) created the European Nuclear Safety andTutoring Institute (ENSTTI) to provide a commonculture in nuclear risk assessment to regulatorsand TSOs within Europe and contribute to theneeds in expertise and research in the field ofsafety for the development of civilian nuclearenergy programmes throughout the world.

■ Six European companies (AREVA, Axpo AG, EnBW,E.ON, URENCO and Vattenfall) signed anagreement that covers the strategic, financial andlegal aspects of the European Nuclear EnergyLeadership Academy (ENELA)9. The academy waslaunched on 28 January 2010 and aims to educatetomorrow’s European nuclear leaders; the trainingcentre will be located in Munich (Germany). Thecreation of the academy was decided by industry


9 - European Nuclear Energy Leadership Academy, 28 January 2010, www.enela.eu

players during the discussions at ENEF. ENELA will offer three training programmes. Thefirst one will train experienced professionals andsenior managers to improve their managerialskills. The second is aimed at young graduatesfrom different backgrounds (engineering, naturalsciences, law, economics, social sciences…) withno professional experience to enable them toacquire skills in nuclear management. FinallyENELA will also serve as a think-tank andorganise meetings to bring togetherrepresentatives from the nuclear industry, thepolitical world, the media and civil society.

Various organisations have been created toaddress the skills pipeline to ensure thatappropriate and relevant educated and trainedpersonnel will be available in future years. toraise awareness about careers in the nuclearindustry, and to improve the knowledge ofcurrent and future skills gaps.■ In the UK, the National Skills Academy for Nuclear

(NSAN)10 was set up to create, develop andpromote world class skills and career pathways toensure a sustainable future for the UK nuclearindustry. The academy is an employer-ledorganisation established to ensure that the UKnuclear industry and its supply chain has theskilled, competent and safe workforce it needs todeal with the current and future UK nuclearprogramme, including all sub-sectors: operations,fuel cycle, decommissioning and wastemanagement, defence, and more recently new

nuclear build. It has established a high qualitytraining-provider network which is tasked withdelivering excellence in nuclear skills.

■ In France a Council for Education and Training inNuclear Energy11 (CFEN) was created by theMinister for Higher Education and Research in2008. CFEN’s objectives are:- Assess the adequacy between the education

offered, the students population in differentcurricula and the industrial/research needs;

- Advise the Office of Higher Education on startingnew academic nuclear curricula;

- Promote opportunities in the nuclear industry;- Coordination of international recruitment of

students;- Promote international curricula such as the new

International MSc in nuclear energy.

■ In March 2010, at an International Conference onAccess to Civil Nuclear Energy12, the Frenchpresident announced the creation of theInternational Institute of Nuclear Energy. Thisinstitute is intended to be a network bringingtogether the main elements of the Frenchapproach to education in the nuclear field. It willbe a hub for institutions and students interested innuclear education and training, includingprofessional advice service especially forforeigners and newcomers. It will also be a thinktank in conjunction with the French InternationalAgency for Nuclear (AFNI), created in 2008 underCEA as a vehicle for international assistance in theestablishment of civil nuclear programmes13. Theinstitute will support the CFEN, promote alabelling of the education and trainingprogrammes for nuclear, and developrelationships with other networks.

■ With regard to the need for having betterknowledge of the nuclear skills gaps in the EU,ENEF initiated the creation of a European HumanResources Observatory in the Nuclear EnergySector13 (EHRO-N), whose objectives are:- Produce and regularly update a quality-assured

data base on the short, medium and long-termneeds of human resources for the differentstakeholders in nuclear energy and nuclear safety;

- Identify gaps and deficiencies in the Europeannuclear E&T infrastructure and elaboraterecommendations for remedial actions andoptimisations;

- Play an active role in the development of Europeanscheme of nuclear qualifications and mutualrecognitions;

- Critically review results of existing national andsectoral surveys in order to ensure consistency withEuropean energy supply strategies and likelymedium- and long-term developments of theglobal nuclear sector;

- Regularly communicate by appropriate meansrelevant data to EU Member States andappropriate public sector bodies, and academicand private organisations involved in nucleareducation and training.


10 - www.nuclear.nsacademy.co.uk

11 - http://www.cfenf.fr

12 - OECD International Conferenceon Access to Civil Nuclear Energy,Paris. March 8 and 9, 2010

13 - Hohlefelder W., ‘Status Reporton WG Risks’ ENEF Prague,28/29 May 2009


To achieve the above objectives, EHRO-N would:- analyse the quality of European education and

training;- benchmark human resources (HR) requirements

with Asia and the US;- identify bottlenecks in the HR supply chain;- organise workshops on specific HR subjects. EHRO-N was created in 2010 with a smalldedicated staff within the European CommissionJRC (Joint Research Centre) and a Senior AdvisoryGroup (SAG).

2.3 New Needs and Opportunities

In recent years the perspectives for nuclearenergy have once again increased as a resultof the 5-times increase in the cost of oil,

increased public awareness of climate changeand global warming with the requirement toreduce carbon emissions and concerns for thesecurity of supply of energy, all resulting inmajor shifts in energy policy in several EUMember States and North America. Opinionsof the industry have improved, public supporthas increased, investment is now seen morepositively and the contributions nuclear canmake to reduce the energy industry's carbonfootprint have created a new era for the nuclearindustry. After many years of a slump in nuclearfacility construction in Europe and USA, thereis now a steadily growing interest in reversing orat least delaying phase-out policies or even inbuilding new nuclear generation capacity:■ In many countries with nuclear power plants the

operational life of nuclear power plants is beingextended beyond the limits set by the originalplanning or by phase-out policies. In Europe,

decisions on lifetime extension have been taken,for instance, in Belgium, the Czech Republic,Finland, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, theSlovak Republic, and Sweden. Further decisionson lifetime extension are expected. The currentGerman government, for instance, declared that itwould decide on a lifetime extension of thenuclear power plants during the currentparliamentary term.

■ In France, one EPR unit is under construction atFlamanville and the construction of a second onehas been decided for Penly. The Jules HorowitzReactor, a state-of-the-art research reactor as wellas a radionuclide production unit, should startoperation in Cadarache by 2015.

■ In Belgium, the government decided (in March2010) to support the MYRRHA project of SCK•CEN,an experimental Accelerator Driven System (ADS),coupling a linear accelerator and a subcriticalreactor of 100MW. This fast neutron facility isintended to study transmutation of acitinides and toserve as a Material Test Reactor for GEN IV systems.

■ The Finnish parliament confirmed (in June 2010)previous government decisions to permit theindustry to build two new reactors in addition tothe EPR under construction in Olkiluoto.

■ The Swedish parliament decided (in June 2010)to reverse the country’s long-standing ban on newconstruction and allow the building of new nuclearreactors to eventually replace the existing nuclearfleet.

■ In the United Kingdom, a whole fleet of newnuclear reactors to replace the ageing ones isplanned to be operational from 2017.

■ The three Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia andEstonia) and Poland agreed (in February 2007) tobuild a new nuclear plant at Ignalina, initiallywith 2 x 1600 MWe.

■ The Italian government decided (in 2009) to liftthe ban on nuclear new build.

Progress to Date

★ There has been significant progress made in the past decade to off-set the demise in nuclear educationand training of the 1980s and 1990s in EU countries; the European Commission has been a leader inthis activity.

★ National research and education networks as well as the European Nuclear Education Network (ENEN)have played an important role in rekindling the flames of nuclear education and training. They havean important function in supporting industry in its ambitious and challenging aims.

★ Industry-driven collaborations and networks involving academic and industrial organisations are nowextending beyond just the academic and research arenas to encompass education, training andprovision of skills effectively in all sectors of the nuclear fuel cycle.

■ In the Czech Republic, the government recentlyexpressed its support for the completion of theNPP Temelin with two additional units.

■ The Czech and Slovak governments have agreedon a joint construction of a new unit at the site atJaslovske Bohunice.

The nuclear renaissance requires additionalhuman resources above and beyond thoseneeded to replace the loss of skilled/experiencedworkforce owing to retirement. The figures arefurther increased by the trend towards extending

lifetimes of existing nuclear power plants, thedecommissioning programmes expected overthe next two/three decades and the need toachieve visible progress towards demonstrationof high-level waste disposal. Additional welleducated, skilled personnel will also be neededfor the new civil nuclear power countries.Thus it is not surprising that the leading nuclearorganisations have in the recent yearscommenced major recruitment campaigns. Forexample, the two main players in France’snuclear industry, EDF and AREVA (bothinvolved in building nuclear plants), recruited acombined total of more than 15,000 new staff14

during 2008/200915.■ EDF took part in what it called the first major

European apprenticeship meeting with the aim offinding young workers to replace the generationapproaching retirement: "Of the 15,000employees recruited over the next five years, onein three will have gone through the apprenticescheme" said a company statement as it announcedit would hire 3500 apprentices in 200815.

■ For its part, AREVA has hired a total of 12,000 newstaff after organising events in Germany, China,

Italy, the USA and the United Arab Emirates aswell as at home in France. The company said itwould need to find 1,000 workers in China whereit is building two of its EPR reactor units15.

Of course, not all the new employees within thisframework are recruited for activities related tonuclear energy. The figures from EDF, forinstance, include also the activities related tonon-nuclear electricity generation, sales, andtransmission grids. Nevertheless, the needs ofthe nuclear sector are high, and similar influx ofnew personnel has not been seen since the infantdays of the nuclear industry. This fast speed ofchange implies the need to build new middlemanagement capacities faster than is possiblewithin the usual career schemes.The new needs for education and training arenot only related to the renaissance of nuclearenergy; there are also changes in the structure ofthe industry and of regulation, which imply theneed for an evolution of knowledge and skills ofthe future workforce. Among these changes arethe increasingly international character of theindustry and of the regulatory activities relatedto nuclear energy, a clear trend towardsoutsourcing of business activities, and adependence of future developments on marketforces. Characteristic features are:■ a growing market for products and services within

the EU;■ growing demand for nuclear services from non-EU

countries;■ harmonization of safety and regulatory practices;■ globalisation of nuclear standards and

specifications;■ dependence on external influences such as carbon

taxes, the ups and downs of the EU financialmarkets, and the impact of competitiveness fromnon-EU countries.

Obviously more international orientation isneeded for a significant part of the future nuclearworkforce. Higher mobility is therefore a keyissue, in particular within the EU. Moreover, theincreasing international dimension of nuclear


14 - These figures for EdF andAreva are not restricted tonuclear job profiles.

15 - World Nuclear News,‘Global Push for Nuclear Skills’,29 October 2008


New Needs and Opportunities

★ The nuclear renaissance requires new human resources above and beyond those required to replacethe loss of skilled/experienced workforce owing to retirement. The figures are further increased by thetrend towards extending lifetimes of existing nuclear power plants, the decommissioning programmesexpected over the next two/three decades and the need to achieve visible progress towardsdemonstration of high-level waste disposal. Additional well educated, skilled personnel will be neededfor the new civil nuclear power countries.

★ There are significant changes of the structure of the nuclear industry such as a trend to moreoutsourcing and an increasing international character of many activities related to nuclear energywhich gradually change professional profiles. This calls for higher mobility of nuclear professionalswithin the EU and for more effective systems of mutual recognition of professional qualifications in linewith the relevant national regulations.

★ The availability of new IT technologies supporting e-learning and distance learning provide attractiveopportunities for increasing the effectiveness and the efficiency of education and training programmes.

★ Significant investment - in financial and conceptual terms - will be needed to ensure the availability ofadequate numbers of high-quality E&T programmes and suitably qualified educators and trainers.

16 - http://www.open.ac.uk

17 - http://education-portal.com/engineering_degree_distance_learning.html

energy, nuclear safety and safety culture needs tobe considered within future education andtraining programmes. This offers significantopportunities but equally challenges for both theEU nuclear education networks and for youngpeople engaging in the field.

It is imperative that the most economic optionsare provided whilst maintaining quality. Theavailability of new IT technologies supportinge-learning and distance learning provideattractive opportunities for new methods oflearning. With the rapid growth of internettechnologies this will encourage greater use ofdistance e-learning16. Such developments are notnew and there are already numerous examples ofgood practise17. Some of these e-learningprogrammes adopt a virtual class-room scene asthe courses and programmes are delivered live

over the internet, an advantage of the onlineformat is the availability of class recordings forstudents to replay anytime. A major drawbackcan be the time difference between the delivererand the student, particularly valid for US andEU interactions. However, on a more localisedscale, e-learning will offer many benefits asmany nuclear installations are situated in ruralareas that may not have the necessaryeducation/training infrastructure. Thealternative to the virtual class-room is for coursematerial to be provided in e-format, the studentcan then work at their own speed. This optionwould however need to be supplemented withactual engagement with the deliverer fortutorial-type activities. E-learning could alsoallow for centralised simulators/demonstrationfacilities to be provided that would, because oftime differences between countries, be usedmore cost effectively.


3. E&T Challenges for the Next Decade


KM

Education and Training remain a keychallenge with regard to maintainingand strengthening thecompetitiveness of the EU in

competition with established and emergingknowledge societies in other areas of the world.In recognition of this challenge the responsibleministers of the EU Members States identifiedimportant priorities for the coming decade intheir Leuven Communiqué of 200918. TheCommuniqué particularly emphasises thefollowing points:■ social dimension: equitable access and

completion; ■ lifelong learning; ■ employability; ■ student-centred learning and the teaching mission

of higher education; ■ education, research and innovation; ■ international openness; ■ mobility; ■ data collection; ■ multidimensional transparency tools; ■ funding.

Due to the past discontinuity in the perceivedperspectives of nuclear energy and in theconstruction of new nuclear plants, there arenow major additional E&T challenges in thefield of nuclear fission energy. As explained insection 2.2, the nuclear industry in the pastdecade has taken some very positive actions toaddress them; however many of the initiativesare still in an early stage and it is not possible yetto assess their effectiveness.Furthermore, many activities are confined tospecific stakeholders and even to a few MemberStates only. In many instances these initiativesappear to lack cohesion and integration and thiscould reduce their value. Although theseinitiatives, i.e. the formation of academies for

example, will accommodate a number ofstudents/trainees they can only accommodate asmall percentage of the future human resourceneeds. The scope of these academies in manycases target specific functions such asdevelopment of special skills needed by thefounder members, i.e. they are not addressingthe full range of knowledge and skills requiredfor a new generation of nuclear professionalsworking for various stakeholders requiringmutual technical understanding of theirtechnical problems.Thus there remain some critical challenges fornuclear E&T in the coming years which need tobe met in order to maintain and further developcapabilities for the safe exploitation of nuclearenergy in the EU.Among the most critical issues are:■ The identification of the knowledge gap in a

sufficiently precise and predictable way so thateffective short- and long-term measures can bedefined to adapt the nuclear E&T programs to theneeds in a sustainable way. As a first step asuitable taxonomy should be developed by therelevant nuclear stakeholders to define thequalifications required more precisely.

■ Closer relationships between universities andnuclear stakeholders needing new humanresources are a key factor for the further evolutionof academic courses; closer co-ordination betweenthese academic programmes and those leading tonon-academic qualifications are also needed inorder to produce the required increased numbersof nuclear experts and middle managers.

■ Meeting the rapidly growing need for highlyqualified trainers and university professorscapable of educating and training a newgeneration of nuclear workers at a high level ofexcellence.

■ Developing sufficient middle managementtraining capacity, through appropriate nucleareducation and training programmes, to satisfy therapidly growing needs imposed by the expected


18 - Communiqué of theConference of EuropeanMinisters Responsible forHigher Education, Leuvenand Louvain-la-Neuve, 28-29 April 2009


pace of nuclear renaissance and the growingnumber of new plants.

■ Ensuring the availability and effective use ofspecific infrastructure for nuclear education andtraining such as training reactors, experimentaland radiochemical facilities, simulators, and e-learning software. Transnational access to suchinfrastructure needs to be improved taking intoaccount significant differences in the nationalconditions in the different EU Member States.

These challenges are not only relevant for theindustry. They are similar for regulators andTSOs (Technical Safety / SupportOrganisations), as stated by André-ClaudeLacoste, Head of the French Nuclear SafetyAuthority, in an interview with the FinancialTimes19 :

The relaunch of construction, and monitoring thatrelaunch, are not simple. We have to regainexperience. We have not built reactors for morethan 15 years. ... How can an authority whichmay have lost some of its habits monitor theconstruction of a reactor when the constructiongroups have also got out of the habit?

It is also important to understand how theconcepts for competence building need to befurther developed to meet changing needs of thestakeholders in nuclear energy and nuclearsafety with respect to the competences of theirpersonnel. An important aspect is thatcompetence building has to proceed beyond thetraditional schemes of education & training.The needs of the stakeholders in their role ofemployers should be met more efficiently byensuring careful and timely consideration of therelevant job requirements in the education andtraining chain.

Competence building needs to aim moredirectly at the ability to apply knowledge, skillsand attitudes so as to perform a job in aneffective and efficient manner20. The principalquestion to be asked of professionals should nolonger be “what did you do to obtain your degree oryour qualification?” but rather “what can you donow that you have obtained your degree or yourqualification?” Considering the internationaldimension of nuclear energy and nuclear safety,the demonstration of competence in that senseand its international recognition become keyissues for future education and trainingschemes.Moreover we need to ensure that futuregenerations of nuclear professionals working fordifferent stakeholders will have that commonbackground of knowledge, skills and culturewhich is required for the mutual understandingof each other’s role and for achieving highquality of inter-stakeholder communication andworking processes. Taking into account the factthat changes of experts from one nuclearstakeholder to the other have decreasedconsiderably during the last decades, and thelimited possibilities of the public sector to attractexperienced experts from the industry, meetingthis challenge is believed to be highly significantfor the future of nuclear energy.Last but not least we need to pay attention tothe competition for the best brains between thenuclear energy sector and other technical fieldsincluding the non-nuclear energy sector. Therenaissance of the nuclear industry is not unique,the renewables sector is experiencing anunprecedented expansion, and other hi-techindustries such as pharmaceuticals, health careetc. all provide attractive opportunities foreducated, well trained and skilled personnel.

19 - Atom Watch, 30 November 2009

20 - See also IAEA SafetyStandard Series, RS-G-1.4 (2001)


Challenging Questions for Nuclear E&T in Europe

★ How can the competences and qualifications required in the next decade for long-term safe operationof existing NPPs be identified, for the increasing number of decommissioning and waste managementprojects, for the growth of the nuclear industry, and for keeping pace with the increasing internationaldimension of many nuclear activities?

★ How are these competences and qualifications different from those emanating from existing E&Tprogrammes? What are the knowledge and skills gaps that need to be filled and how much time isavailable for the implementation of related measures? What types of engineering, construction andproject management skills will be in short supply with the advent of new build, particularly if othermajor construction projects are competing for the same workforce?

★ What changes and optimisations are required within the current E&T schemes in order to addressrecognised knowledge and skills gaps? Are new types of E&T programmes required? How should be therelationships between industry, academia and other nuclear stakeholders be further developed in orderto effectively address these questions?

★ How can a sufficient number of highly qualified trainers and university professors needed to educateand train a new generation of nuclear workforce be ensured?

★ How can the current methods for competence building be further developed so as to optimise the abilityto apply knowledge, skills and attitudes and, as a result, carry out duties in the most effective andefficient manner?

★ How can the increasing needs for higher mobility of nuclear professionals within the EU and beyond bemet? How should more effective systems of mutual recognition of qualifications and professionalcompetences be established? Can the schemes established for mutual recognition of academicqualifications based on the Bologna process be used as a basis for future schemes aimed at a bettermutual recognition of professional qualifications and competences? How can such developments withthe relevant national regulations be coordinated?

★ How can be ensured that future generations of nuclear professionals working for different stakeholderswill have the common background of knowledge and culture required for the mutual understanding ofeach other’s role and for achieving the necessary quality of inter-stakeholder communication andworking processes?


4. Key Approaches


KM

4.1 Identifying Knowledge,Skills Profiles and Gaps

There have been several, mostly nationalstudies to identify the skills gaps relevantfor the orientation of future E&T

programmes. These show that the needs are highcompared to the number of graduates producedby the nuclear departments of Europeanuniversities, but still small compared to the totalnumber of engineers educated (i.e. in all sectors).They further indicate that the bulk of the need isnot for reactor technology specialists but ratherfor “conventional” engineers with only partialknowledge of nuclear topics.

In the UK, for instance, COGENT hasprovided a skills gap analysis categorised bynuclear industrial sector such asdecommissioning, safety and security, waste andrepository operations etc., but covering bothprofessional and trade skills. A recentCOGENT report21, which is the first stage in acomprehensive skills research programme,quantifies and qualifies the current UK civilnuclear sector, concluding that the UK industry:■ requires of the order of 1,000 new recruits per

year (mainly new apprentices and graduates) forthe next 15 years;

■ could potentially draw in suitably experiencedpersonnel from other sectors and possiblyglobally;

■ is not expected to have a significant outflow ofpersonnel to other sectors so that the loss ofnuclear expertise through retirement would be theoverriding attrition factor;

■ in a scenario that includes new build, would needto recruit up to 8,000 new people in the operatingworkforce by 2025 in addition to replacementdemand due to retirement.

Another example is a French study22 released in2008, involving major French nuclearorganisations such as AREVA, ASN, CEA,EDF, IRSN, GDF Suez and sub-contractors,addressing the industrial sectors and engineeringdisciplines and some scientific disciplines e.g.chemistry and metallurgy. The survey provided abreakdown of expertise required by design &process, industrial computing, safety andmetallurgy disciplines in high demand andincluded qualifications and inter-personnelskills such as management aptitude, motivation,loyalty etc. It indicated that:■ industrial companies required annually about

1,200 engineers at Master degree level, amongwhich AREVA, EDF and GDF Suez represent morethan half the demand; in addition about 900technicians at Bachelor level would be requiredeach year and industrial organisations alsorequire some of their new recruits at PhD level;

■ ASN, IRSN and CEA are seeking each year anadditional 100 engineers in total, most of thembeing PhD engineering graduates in nuclearengineering, safety and waste management;

■ both AREVA and EDF consider that hiring skilledpeople is a major challenge;

■ recruiting young people with an aptitude formanagement is desirable for many of theorganisations consulted.

The existing gaps analyses provide useful dataand clearly indicate the dimension of theproblem. Most of them used questionnaires, insome cases (e.g. for the UK and the Frenchanalyses) dedicated staff took several months to


21 - COGENT, RenaissanceNuclear Skills Series, PowerPeople-The Civil NuclearWorkforce 2009-2025,September 2009

22 - Huet E., andZolotoukhine E., Étude surl’Évolution des Métiers del’Ingénierie Nucléaire,OPIIEC, April 2008


gather the information. However, such analysescover only a few countries and the level of detailof the information provided is mostly notsufficient. Most of the analyses do not providedetailed information at the level of industrialsector, such as fuel fabrication, reactor operation,spent fuel management, R&D etc., or of thevarious disciplines such as chemical, mechanical,electrical engineers or chemists, physicists,mathematicians etc. It is, however, importantthat such detailed information is available sothat respective stakeholders can decide if thesupply chain, i.e. academic institutions, will beable to supply these numbers. Similarly theacademic institutions need to know the numbersrequired in each of the various scientific andengineering disciplines to judge which coursesneed strengthening and where there are gaps.Strengthening the tool of skills gap analysis istherefore a critical issue in view of adaptingeducation and training programmes to thepresent and future needs of the industry and theother stakeholders in nuclear energy and nuclearsafety. A broad international perspective isneeded as well as an appreciation of that job-specific combination of knowledge, skills, andprofessional attitudes, which characterize thecompetences required for professionals toperform in the most effective way under presentday and expected future conditions. Skills gap

analyses performed on that basis can then beused to improve the education and trainingschemes in view of better and more efficientlyproducing the "learning outcomes" needed bythe professional. The concepts adopted by theEuropean Credit System for VocationalEducation and Training23 (ECVET) developedunder the umbrella of the CopenhagenDeclaration24 opens interesting perspectives inthat regard.Focussing on nuclear fission in this context, anew EU strategy for nuclear competencebuilding across the EU should help indeveloping the necessary instruments, forexample:■ a well structured common terminology across the

EU for the description of professional role profilesrelated to nuclear fission energy and radiationprotection;

■ a taxonomy of nuclear skills and competencies foreach role as a basis of a common language foremployment and education/training related tonuclear fission and radiation protection;

■ specification of agreed learning outcomes andassessment criteria.

All stakeholders in nuclear energy and nuclearsafety concerned with human resources andprofessional recruitment are invited toparticipate in this challenging discussion.

23 - http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc50_en.htm

24 - Declaration of the EuropeanMinisters of Vocational Educationand Training and the EuropeanCommission on enhanced Europeancooperation in vocational educationand training, Copenhagen, 2002

Analysis of Knowledge and Skills Profiles and Gaps

★ Although the industry, in particular EDF and AREVA, is currently recruiting significant numbers across abroad spectrum of disciplines partly to offset retirements, a better understanding of the knowledge andskills profiles relevant for the safe long-term operation of existing NPPs, the implementation ofeffective waste management and decommissioning solutions, and - more generally - for the furthergrowth of the nuclear industry are all required.

★ Better analyses of knowledge and skills gaps are needed based on the most recent information and aperspective of the sustainable future needs. These analyses need to cover a wide scope including therelevant engineering, scientific and technical areas as well as managerial skills.

★ It is particularly urgent to identify those knowledge and skills gaps that could jeopardise the availabilityof industrial and regulatory capabilities needed to respond to the growing demand for new nuclearcapacity.

★ Gap analyses need to be performed at a European level with strong links to the Member States and tothe most concerned stakeholders. Particular attention should be paid to sustainability and the assuranceof the quality of the results. An appreciation of the timescales involved is required, i.e. the time whenknowledge and skills are needed as well as the delays between the start of the implementation and theappearance of the first results of new initiatives.

★ ETKM recognises the importance of the recently-established European Nuclear Human ResourcesObservatory (EHRO-N) for undertaking this analysis work at European level.


25 - G. Van Goethem, ‘From Knowledge Creationto Competence Building’,AtomiCareers Event, 4-5 December 2009

26 - ECTShttp://www.bologna-bergen2005.no/Docs/00-Main_doc/990719BOLOGNA_DECLARATION.PDF

27 - ECVEThttp://ec.europa.eu/education/vocational-education/doc1143_en.htm4.2 Education and Training

Programmes

The scope and delivery of education andtraining is diverse and benchmarking atthese levels would be challenging and a

lengthy process with uncertain outcomes andvalue. In some instances university education hassome peculiarities, for example French engineersare usually educated in special schools ratherthan at universities. Fortunately both highereducation establishments and employers tend torely on the final qualifications, i.e. for entry intohigher education, students are judged on theircertificates of education achieved in secondaryeducation, whilst employers will assess potentialprofessional employees generally on their first,Masters or PhD degree, and, where appropriate,work experience.

Regarding higher education establishments,there are now established methods in place forcomparing qualifications and their value fromone country to another, so accepting foreignstudents is a common occurrence. This is not thecase in the jobs market in Member States, andon many occasions industries such as the nuclearsector have campaigned for some form ofeducation/training commonality that wouldallow easier transfer of employees from oneMember State to another.

The qualification commonality is promoted byEuratom in its policy for education25. Euratom’s

general education principles to match supplyand demand of knowledge are:

■ modular courses and common qualificationapproach;

■ one mutual recognition system for Masters grade;■ mobility for teachers and students across the

world;■ involvement of stakeholders.

This approach is being applied to Master`sdegree qualifications based on the EuropeanCredit Transfer System26 (ECTS) developedunder the umbrella or the Bologna Declaration.It is, however, more difficult to implement forundergraduate degrees and for vocationaltraining. Nonetheless, approaches for mutualrecognition of professional qualifications arebeing developed within the Copenhagenprocess22, 27.

The argument for mobility of qualifiedpersonnel is well founded, although challengingto achieve and to demonstrate commonality ofqualification/experience. Demonstration couldbe accommodated by the provision of a'competence passport' that would allowindividuals to record all their skills development,training and experience in a coherent integratedmanner recognised by all employers, thusencouraging mobility. Euratom believes24 thiswould allow achievements of progress towards acompetence profile to be readily recognised.

The Skill’s Pyramid


28 - Gilchrist D, ‘RebuildingNuclear Competences’, ENEN2nd Special Event “NuclearE&T Needs and Strategies”,Ljubljana, Slovenia, 4 March 2010

29 - http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc50_en.htm

Competency/proficiency passports are not a newdevelopment; several years ago BNFL and EDFhad introduced them into their organisations. InItaly ENEL has taken a training initiative torebuild internal nuclear competences with agood deal of commonality28. The modelunderpins technical skills, need for change andstrategic/policy issues. Other organisations, suchas NSAN10 have also advocated/introducedSkills Passports at national level. Employersfrom across the UK nuclear industry have cometogether to develop and implement the NuclearSkills Passport via NSAN. The Skills Passportwill record and recognise achievement ofnationally agreed standards and jobcompetencies, supporting mobility andtransferability of skills across the industry.Competence profiles for specific jobs/roles haveagain been introduced by several nuclearorganisations: NNL, EDF etc.An important issue for academic nucleareducation is the adaptation of the existingprogrammes to the changing needs of theindustry and other stakeholders in nuclearenergy and nuclear safety. Many existingprogrammes are still too much focused onnuclear technology and nuclear science, but thisscope is too narrow considering theinterdisciplinary character of nuclear energy andnuclear safety and the current conditions fornuclear energy. Academic programmes fornuclear education and, to some extent, academicnuclear research should therefore have somelevel of alignment to industry by addressingmore interdisciplinary contents andmanagement issues, by increased industrialinteraction, by establishing links to relevanttraining programmes run by employers and byco-ordinating the intended learning outcomeswith the findings of advanced skill gaps analyses.

Regarding the mobility of the nuclear workforce within Europe, increasing application ofthe concepts developed within the initiative fora European Credit system for VocationalEducation and Training (ECVET)29 can bebeneficial in several regards:■ provision of more mobile and appropriate

skilled/trained personnel;■ improving the flexibility and mobility between

existing national systems (ECVET does not aim atreplacing national systems);

■ taking advantage of a European context of goodnational solutions such as "Nuclear SkillsPassport" developed in the UK by the "NationalSkills Academy".

Within a related European strategy thefollowing approaches could be useful:■ identification of competent European institutions

to provide qualifications (wherever they arerequired by national or EU nuclear regulations) orportfolios of learning outcomes (desired, forexample, in the case of the nuclear "EuropeanPassport for Continuous ProfessionalDevelopment", envisaged in some Euratom 7th

Framework Programme - FP7 - training projects); ■ pilot exercises to apply the "learning outcomes"

approach within ECVET partnerships; ■ partnerships between home institutions and

hosting institutions: - the home institution (the institution sending the

learners and where the learner comes back to) willvalidate and recognise learning outcomes achievedby the learner;

- the hosting institution will deliver training for thelearning outcomes concerned and assess theachieved learning outcomes.

Another essential requirement is thestrengthening of the role of nuclearstakeholders, acting as large employers, in theeducation and training of graduates. The manygood initiatives already started need to becontinued and receive further support. Thisholds in particular for the stakeholder-drivenprogrammes mentioned in section 2.2. But morediscussion and co-operation on nuclear E&T isalso needed between academic organisations andother nuclear stakeholders in order to resolveremaining difficulties such as the insufficientavailability of internships and to achieve therequired optimisation of academic programmes.Particular attention is to be paid to the trainingof educators and trainers.

However, the increasing number and growingvariety of academic and stakeholder-led nuclearE&T programmes could lead to increasedfragmentation. This would be detrimental inview of the need to ensure that futuregenerations of nuclear professionals working fordifferent stakeholders have a sufficient level ofcommon culture and mutual understanding ofeach other’s role. More co-ordination betweenthe different initiatives might therefore berequired in order to avoid such difficulties.

Last but not least, the current negativeperception of science and engineering by thepublic and more importantly by young peopleneeds to be rectified. In many European


countries, engineering and physical sciences arestill unpopular fields of study, both academicand vocational, but it is from this same pool ofstudents that the nuclear sector must recruit.Although there are promising signs of aresurgence in nuclear education, the challengesover the next decade are also not helped by thedemographic changes in the 18-21 year-old agegroup. Outreach programmes from highereducational institutes and industry to schoolsshould be supported to encourage children toconsider science and engineering careers.

Improving the attractiveness of nucleareducation in its widest sense therefore remains acrucial objective. Many of the approachesaddressed above are expected to have beneficialeffects in that regard. A further potential lies ina wider use of advanced information technologyfor the purpose of nuclear education andtraining. This can improve the access to relevantinformation, increase learning motivation,highlight the international dimension of nuclearenergy, and make the field of nuclear energylook more modern for young people.

Nuclear Education and Training Programmes

★ A wider mutual recognition of professional qualifications and competences is a prerequisite forincreasing the mobility and the international orientation of nuclear professionals within the EU. Greaterclarity of education and training standards needs therefore to be achieved. In some European countriesthe industry has already made significant progress to address normalisation of E&T.

★ It is important that normalisation of education and training standards is also achieved at the Europeanlevel. Introduction of appropriate concepts should be carried out by the relevant nuclear stakeholders.The initiative for a European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET), and thestepwise introduction of a European proficiency passport are considered promising approaches in thatrespect.

★ The academic nuclear education programmes and academic nuclear research should be better focusedon the current needs of the nuclear industry, e.g. by opening classical technical programmes to includeinterdisciplinary contents (e.g. management issues), by increased industrial interaction, by establishinglinks to training programmes run by employers, and by coordination of intended learning outcomeswith the findings of advanced skills gaps analyses.

★ Discussion and co-operation on nuclear E&T between academic organisations and other nuclearstakeholders have been considerably intensified during recent years. Further progress is needed,however, to resolve remaining difficulties such as the insufficient availability of internships and tooptimise academic programmes. This process should include a systematic consideration of establishedgood practices in E&T in the nuclear sector and in other disciplines.

★ The increased support and active involvement of the industry and other stakeholders in academiceducation and research activities is very important and needs to be further encouraged.

★ In view of the needs for more and better nuclear education and training and for adapting the respectiveprogrammes to the changing needs, the training of educators and trainers warrants particularattention.

★ The increasing number of nuclear E&T programmes and their growing variety requires betterinformation at the European level and a minimum level of co-ordination between the differentinitiatives.

★ A wider use of advanced information technology for the purpose of nuclear education and training isneeded in view of improving the access to relevant information, increasing learning motivation,supporting international co-operation in nuclear E&T, and - more generally - promoting theattractiveness of professional appointments in nuclear energy.


30 - OECD NEA No 3145,‘Nuclear Safety Research inOECD Countries: MajorFacilities and Programmesat Risk (SESAR/FAP)’, 2002

31 - OECD NEA/CSNI/R(2007) 6, ‘Nuclear SafetyResearch in OECD Countries:Support Facilities forExisting and AdvancedReactors (SFEAR)’, 2007

32, 33 - OECD NEA/CSNI/R(2009) 8, ‘ExperimentalFacilities for Gas-cooledReactor Safety Studies, TaskGroup on Advanced ReactorExperimental Facilities(TAREF)’, 2009

OECD ExperimentalFacilities for Fast SodiumReactor Safety Studies, TaskGroup on Advanced ReactorExperimental Facilities(TAREF) (in print)

34 -https://www.nea.fr/rtfdb

35 - OECD NEA No 9293,‘Research and Test FacilitiesRequired in Nuclear Scienceand Technology’, 2009

36 - SNETP-ETKM Report“Current and Future Uses ofNuclear Infrastructure forEducation”, February 2010

4.3 Infrastructures

Access to research, test and demonstrationfacilities that provide hands-onexperience is fundamental to the

development of competences and expertise. Inthe nuclear industry’s infancy there were amplefacilities in Member States that stimulated thedevelopment of materials including theircharacterisation, fuel and reactor systems, wastemanagement solutions etc. and producednumerous innovative, knowledgeable scientistsand engineers with practical skills.Some of these facilities were in the privatesector, others in government organisationsincluding universities. Some are still inoperation having been refurbished, though toomany have been ‘moth-balled’ waiting finaldecommissioning or have already beendecommissioned. The facilities that remain areconcentrated in a small number of MemberStates and their remaining life expectancy isusually shorter than the time needed toimplement SNETP's strategic research agenda,which foresees activities to 2020 and beyond.Effective education and training processesrequire close links between academia andresearch institutes, especially with theirexperimental infrastructure. Stagnation ofnuclear energy and shrinking budgets fornuclear R&D in the late 1990s resulted in theclosure of large experimental facilities and thedisbanding of experienced teams, with a veryserious impact on the professional competencesand quality of education in nuclear disciplines.The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency startedsystematically to raise this issue and highlightthe risks. Its Committee on the Safety ofNuclear Installations (CSNI) issued the 2002report entitled "Nuclear Safety Research inOECD Countries: Major Facilities andProgrammes at Risk (SESAR/FAP)"30. In aneffort to prevent the closure of majorexperimental facilities, the OECD/NEA beganto organise internationally funded researchprojects at selected facilities. With the advent ofthe nuclear renaissance, the OECD/NEA hascontinued with the mapping of the availableexperimental infrastructure suitable for researchand development of existing and advancednuclear reactors. In 2007 the NEA issued areport entitled "Nuclear Safety Research inOECD Countries: Support Facilities forExisting and Advanced Reactors (SFEAR)”31. In2008 a new project TAREF was initiated in

order to seek experimental facilities suitable forsafety R&D of Gen. IV reactors, primarily forgas-cooled and then for sodium-cooled fastreactors. The project to date has issued twoseparate reports for both types of reactors32, 33.In parallel with the CSNI, the NEA NuclearScience Committee also devotes significantattention to the experimental infrastructure, andestablished the Expert Group on Needs of R&DFacilities in Nuclear Science. The Expert Groupprepared a report on the status of integral dataand the future needs for nuclear science R&Dand test facilities. These included: nuclear data,reactor physics, fuel behaviour, material science,chemistry, fuel cycle, nuclear production ofhydrogen, high-performance computing andthermal-hydraulics. The group also established adatabase of nuclear science R&D and testfacilities to help clarify the status and needs ofthese facilities34. The Expert Group recentlycompleted its work and the final report waspublished in 200935.

The ETKM Working group reviewed nuclearfacilities and infrastructures available foreducation in the areas “reactor technology andengineering” and their usage36. This analysisconcluded that:■ only 25 of the 53 presently operated research

reactors and critical assemblies are effectively usedfor laboratory sessions at BSc and MSc levels, andthat only 8 reactors are operated for this purposeduring more than 120 hours per year each. Theseresearch reactors are also used for the preparationof MSc and PhD theses (around 70 theses peryear);

■ from the operator’s point of view, an increase of atleast 50% in the number of accommodatedstudents is considered possible;

FRM II Research Reactor


■ thermal-hydraulics and severe accident facilitiesare relatively new compared to experimentalreactors. There is not much duplication in thosefacilities;

■ small nuclear research facilities located atuniversities or in research centres are in generalused more intensively for teaching nuclearengineering than larger research infrastructures.Therefore special attention should be given to theageing of the "small" facilities and theirrefurbishment or replacement;

■ there is no systematic use of research facilities forteaching purposes. Hence, there is a need topromote a more coherent and extensive use ofexperimental facilities at universities;

■ simulators are better used for practical sessionsdealing with power plant steady state andtransient operations, but not enough of thesesimulators are used for education and trainingpurposes.

Fuel cycle related infrastructure is also highlyrelevant. At present only few organisations suchas ITU and CEA provide such infrastructure fortraining in Europe, and only a limited group ofstudents is trained systematically in working withhighly radioactive materials. Integrating thoselaboratories more closely into the education andtraining schemes in Europe and maintaining asufficient number of high class nuclearlaboratories, where studies on real radioactivematerials can be performed, are consideredessential for keeping Europe's leading role innuclear fuel development and treatment.

Altogether the surveys show that the use ofstate-of-the-art facilities for education and

training purposes is not sufficient for an industrythat is expecting resurgence in its fortunes. Thefacilities that are available could accommodateabout twice the number of students currentlybeing trained. This inefficiency largely stemsfrom the lack of good coordination betweenvarious parties.There are encouraging signs, however, that mod-ern facilities and infrastructures are again seen askey to the nuclear industry’s future. The con-struction of the Jules Horowitz material testreactor37 in France, the UK’s NNL CentralLaboratory38 state-of-the-art hot cells and otherlaboratory facilities in Cumbria, the joint venturebetween the NDA and Manchester’s DaltonNuclear Institute39 for a new laboratory housingaccelerators and other experimental facilitiesagain in Cumbria, and MYRRHA – a Europeanfast spectrum experimental facility for demon-strating efficient transmutation and associatedtechnologies – sited in Belgium are all goodexamples of redressing the trend of the 1990s.Nevertheless it should not be forgotten thatsome of the facilities for education and trainingare ageing and may need to be replaced relativelysoon. As only a few experimental facilities,largely for research purposes, are currently underconstruction, the capacities remaining foreducation and training during the expected newbuild era may therefore be insufficient. This willbe exacerbated if, as expected, future educationand training programmes are even moredemanding of such facilities.

Last not least attention needs to be paid to theuse for education and training of the hugeamount of information produced by the researchfacilities operated in the last decades withindifferent experimental programmes. Thepreservation of this information requires boththe long-term, sustainable storage of therelevant data (including comprehensiveexperimental reports) and the “transfer” of therelevant knowledge to new generations ofnuclear scientists and engineers. Linking datamanagement and preservation activities witheducation and training by means of appropriateIT solutions should be used more to meet thoseobjectives.

37 - JHR http://www-cadarache.cea.fr/rjh/index.html

38 - NNLhttp://www.nnl.co.uk

39 - NDAhttps://www.nda.gov.uk/news/nuc-research-centre.cfm,29 January 2007

Full Scope Simulator


4.4 International Cooperation

Strategies for education and training relatedto nuclear energy were traditionallyfocused on national requirements.

International cooperation was essentially limitedto the usual practices for international academicexchange and to the links with international co-operation in nuclear research. However, thescope has widened during recent years, and theactivities of international nuclear educationnetworks such as ENEN play a significant role

in that respect. More recently internationalcooperation in education and training isincreasingly extending beyond Europe,motivated by the increasing internationaldimension of many nuclear activities and thesignificance of the large programmes for newnuclear build particularly in Asia. Euratom hasbeen and continues to be a major player in thisarena.There are several reasons to further extendinternational co-operation in nuclear educationand training:■ The cost of developing new reactor systems is

significant and possibly unaffordable by any oneMember State. Various initiatives40 have beenimplemented to potentially off-set this burden,but in many instances have concentrated on theresearch aspects and have ignored the humanresource challenges now and in the future.

■ For more than thirty years the EU has beenextremely proactive in promoting and fundingcollaborative research programmes (FrameworkProgrammes) and more recently this has extendedto education and training. However, this may notbe sufficient to support the re-emerging nuclear

Facilities for Education and Training★ Research and training reactors, other facilities and measuring devices should be used more

systematically within nuclear education to provide students with a more direct and more personalexperience of nuclear phenomena and characteristics.

★ The use of large research infrastructure such as major experiments and state-of-the-art computer codesis highly relevant for the quality and the attractiveness of high-level academic education in nucleartechnology, particularly within PhD programs.

★ At present the existing facilities for education on reactor technology and engineering provide sufficientcapacity and could accommodate at least twice the number of students currently being trained.However many of these facilities are ageing and may soon need to be refurbished or replaced. As onlya few experimental facilities, largely for research purposes, are under construction, the capacitiesremaining for education and training during the expected new build era may therefore be insufficient.

★ Fuel cycle related laboratories need to be more closely integrated into the education and trainingschemes in Europe. A sufficient number of high class nuclear laboratories need to be maintained wherestudies on real radioactive materials can be performed.

★ As the relevant infrastructure, particularly the experimental facilities, is not equally distributed acrossthe EU, the initiatives undertaken within the Euratom Framework Programme to improve transnationalaccess can ensure more efficient use of the existing infrastructure. These initiatives should be co-ordinated within an EU-wide policy for transnational use of the existing infrastructure with dueconsideration given to their long-term availability.

★ The opportunities provided by the advances in computational infrastructure should be better exploitedfor achieving a high standard of excellence in nuclear education and training. Of particular significanceare visible European high-level products such as advanced simulation tools and e-learning platforms.Those initiatives should focus on a very small number of highly attractive and fully transparentinitiatives, i.e. by use of open source software, in view of ensuring their attractiveness for futuregenerations of students.

40 - GNEPhttp://www.gneppartnership.org/


41 - Asian Network forEducation in NuclearTechnology:http://www.anent-iaea.org/anent/about.htm

42 - World NuclearUniversity:http://www.world-nuclear-university.org

43 - IAEA CoordinationMeeting ‘Strengtheningsustainability of nuclearresearch and developmentinstitutes in the modernscience and technologyenvironment’ RER/0/031,16-18 November 2009

44 - UN News Centre, 28 Dec 2009,http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33354&Cr=iaea&Cr1Cooperation beyond Europe

★ International cooperation has been one of the major strengths of the nuclear industry and has largelyunderpinned national research programmes. Euratom has been and continues to be a major player butcooperation now needs to transcend the purely research arena.

★ Cooperation with non-European countries in nuclear education and training, especially with thoseengaged in larger programmes for new build, is highly beneficial for the further development of thenuclear knowledge base in Europe and crucial for the development of new modes of cooperation in aglobal environment. It can also help to increase the attractiveness of the nuclear energy sector in thecompetition with other industries for the best brains.

★ Considering the high significance of the cultural dimension of nuclear safety, the cooperation with non-European countries needs to address both building scientific and technical knowledge and achievingmutual understanding of each other’s culture. This is particularly relevant for cooperation with Asia andSouth America.

★ The cooperation with non-European countries in nuclear education and training therefore needs to beintensified. Close links between research and E&T in cooperative projects are required in order toachieve this objective in the near future. The Generation IV initiative is a key example in this regard,and similar principles of cooperation could be applied in other areas. Linking the extension of E&Tcooperation with new initiatives to optimise the access to E&T infrastructure at a European level shouldbe part of the strategy.

★ The Euratom Framework Programme is an important basis for the cooperation between Europe andnon-European countries. Taking into account the significance of a broad approach with involvement ofdifferent stakeholders, partnerships between public and private organisations should play an increasingrole in the future.

sector with the comparatively rapid decline, owingto retirement, of experienced, skilled personnel.Thus private organisations and governmentsshould be more proactive in promotingcooperation/collaboration in education andtraining at all levels.

■ There have been many good examples ofcollaboration including, for example, summerschools, visiting scientists, user facilities, networksof excellence, workshops, conferences, trainingcourses, nuclear databases and informationportals. Owing to the declining fortunes of theindustry in the 1980s/1990s some of theseinitiatives have declined and others expired.However, when the industry was in its heyday, allwere seen to be of value and were supported notonly at the European level but also by privateorganisations. In the present circumstances, theyare as important as, if not more important thanbefore.

■ There are some indications that the industry andother organisations are addressing theopportunities that collaborations and cooperation

within the EU and beyond can provide, outside FPactivities. The base-line for DG-Energy and DG-Research is for greater cooperation and mobilityof staff, but this needs to be fused with educationand training competences and their globalisation.The existing international education and trainingnetworks such as, for example, ENEN, ANENT41

and WNU42 can provide a basis for developingfuture initiatives required to meet thosechallenges.

■ It is the marrying of the theory with practicalactivities either in laboratories or with simulatorsthat is necessary for the future education of youngengineers and scientists. Internationalcollaboration/cooperation, although foundedcurrently on education and training and rightly so,should transgress this particular arena toaccommodate others that are equally linked withE&T such as access to infrastructures,demonstrators, funding etc. Such objectives in partare already addressed by actions of the IAEA43,44

but should receive even more attention in thefuture.


5. Good Practice


KM

There are many successful examples ofgood practice in European MemberStates, and some of the recentinternational initiatives have also

proven effective and could serve as a model forthe further development and optimisation ofnuclear education and training.

The major international nuclear organisationssuch as the IAEA and the OECD/NEA45 havestrongly advocated the enormous benefits thatcan be accrued from learning from each other.This good practice covers a wide spectrum ofactivities such as human resource development,cooperation between education and traininginstitutions and industry, networking, use oftechnology/technical information such as theJRC’s Nucleonica Website46 and the transfer ofideas, products etc. from the laboratory to themarket place. This good practice should be thefoundation on which to build a much greaterportfolio of best practice that will sustain thegrowth of the industry in a timely, economic andsafe manner.

Examples of such good practice are:

■ Effective cooperation between key stakeholders innuclear energy / nuclear safety and severaluniversities or university networks to furtherdevelop curricula and provide financial support insituations where the conventional academicfinancing mechanisms are incapable ofmaintaining the academic structures at anappropriate level. Examples of this approach are

- the UK NNL’s initiative to strengthen links withuniversities. Via a Memorandum of Understanding,NNL staff assist in supervising research, supportundergraduate courses and develop specificcourses/workshops. Several of the NNL staffinvolved in these activities have honorary roles(Visiting Professors, Fellows, Lecturers etc.)conferred by the appropriate university. - the new Master’s study programme "Nuclear energyfacilities” accredited by the Ministry of Education,Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic and

implemented jointly by the Faculty of MechanicalEngineering at the Czech Technical University and theNuclear Research Institute Rez plc, with senior expertsfrom Rez delivering course lectures.

■ The process of retaining current industry leadersand other key experienced employees iscomplicated owing partly to the attractive natureof industry pension plans, with many employeesreaching full pension entitlement in their mid tolate fifties. To address this issue of continuity ofknowledge and skills owing to a shortage of mid-career professionals, leading organisations aredeveloping more innovative and appropriateapproaches to leadership development as part ofcomprehensive talent management strategies.

■ External sourcing represents a solution thatprovides the most immediate results. Given thefierce competition for new talent in view of thecurrent expansion, companies often adoptinnovative practices, the most successful being thehiring from abroad or from other industries andthe outsourcing of parts of their recruitmentprocesses to third-party experts.

■ The French Council for Education and Training inNuclear Energy (CFEN) associates institutions,academy, industry and R&D to create and co-ordinate the French educational offer at thenational level, being also a think tank for all thestakes holders. Through the creation of the AgenceFrance Nucléaire International (AFNI) theseactions are being further deployed, moreespecially towards foreign countries includingnewcomers.

■ The employer-led National Skills Academy forNuclear in the UK, previously described in thisreport and increasingly recognised nationally.

■ JRC's Nucleonica nuclear science portal as aninnovative professional and technical resource forknowledge creation and competence building innuclear science for the EU and worldwide nuclearindustry. Its innovative feature such as web-basedscientific applications and online wiki areparticularly suitable for education and training of


45 - NEA/NDC (2010)15,‘Draft Summary Record ofthe 2nd Meeting of theAdhoc Expert Group on“Education, Training andKnowledge Management”27-28 May, 2010

46 - JRChttp://www.nucleonica.net


young scientists, engineers and technicians. ■ JRC CAPTURE and SARNET2 initiatives for their

attention to the sustainable storage ofexperimental data, to allow in the future to

continue the education and training of the newgenerations of the researchers using thesignificant amount of data available, especially forthermal-hydraulics and severe accident.

Examples of Good Practice

★ Effective cooperation in the area of nuclear E&T between industrial and regulatory organisations andacademic and research institutions has been very valuable in stabilizing nuclear education programmesand in their reorientation towards future needs.

★ Systematic approaches to a quality-assured skills gap analysis, e.g. the COGENT approach in the UK,are indispensable for sound and sustainable planning of future E&T programmes.

★ Advance IT solutions and databases for improving access to nuclear knowledge and information on E&Topportunities, e.g. the ENEN data base and JRC’s Nucleonica, can play an important role in makingnuclear education more attractive and in the effective development of a new generation of nuclearengineers and scientists.

★ Initiatives for enhancing cooperation in nuclear academic education with Asia, such as promoted by theENEN Association, can be valuable triggers for the required expansion of cooperation in nucleareducation and training beyond Europe.

★ Stakeholder-led programmes such as planned by the European Nuclear Energy Leadership Academy(ENELA) and the National Skills Academy for Nuclear (NSAN) can contribute to the requiredoptimisation of nuclear education and training in view of meeting new needs in the nuclear energysector.

★ Promotion of sharing and learning from good practice as advocated by the major nuclearagencies/organisations will further enhance the sustainability of the industry.

6. Recommendations


KM

1 - Key stakeholders in nuclear energy and nuclearsafety should develop a 'common language' foremployment as well as education and training fornuclear energy, including a common taxonomy ofskills and competencies linked to jobs.

2 - Key stakeholders in nuclear energy and academicinstitutions should engage in a joint action tooptimise the curricula of academic programmesrelated to nuclear energy with special regard tothe needs by 2020 and to the potential synergiesbetween academic and non-academicprogrammes for graduates.

3 - Private-public partnerships for nuclear educationand training need further support and funding inorder to be able to cater for the expansion in E&Tprogrammes, the training of trainers andproviding the necessary guidance.

4 - The framework for mutual recognition ofqualifications should be further developed withthe objective of gradually including non-academicqualifications and related vocational training. Thisshould include the identification of 'CompetentInstitutions' in the EU that can providequalifications or portfolios of learning outcomes,

and pilot exercises to apply the 'learningoutcomes' approach within ECVET partnerships.

5 - Recent European initiatives such as EHRO-N,ENEN and JRC databases, which depend on inputfrom and cooperation with national organisations,should receive appropriate support.

6 - The existing European initiatives for facilitatingtransnational access to facilities for the purpose ofeducation and training should be optimised andcoordinated in view of building a Europeanplatform for E&T-related facilities and ITinfrastructure.

7 - The existing European initiatives for cooperationwith non-European countries in nuclear educationand training should be strengthened andintegrated as part of the general strategy ofenhancing international cooperation in nuclearresearch and nuclear safety.

8 - Key organisations within the EU should cooperatein the further development and maintenance ofEuropean databases and IT platforms intended tosupport nuclear education and training and in theprovision of information on related programmesand opportunities.


ET

KM

38 N u c l e a r E d u c a t i o n a n d Tr a i n i n g - K e y E l e m e n t s o f a S u s t a i n a b l e E u r o p e a n S t r a t e g y

Box: ETKM within the SNETP

The Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform

■ Harry Eccles (co-chair) (UK NNL)■ Anselm Schaefer (co-chair) (ENEN)■ Jan Blomgren (Vattenfall)■ Vincent Chauvet (LGI)■ Xu Cheng (FZK)■ Leon Cizelj (Josef Stefan Institute)■ Andrew Clarke (Manchester U.)■ Peter De Regge (ENEN)■ Michel Giot (SCK•CEN)■ Miroslav Hrehor (UJV Rez)

■ Richard Ivens (Foratom)■ Ryoko Kusumi (ENEN)■ Gérard Labadie (EDF)■ Joseph Magill (JRC)■ Gabriela Miu (LGI)■ Jean-Philippe Nabot (CEA)■ John Roberts (Manchester U.)■ Joseph Safieh (CEA, INSTN)■ Peter Storey (Manchester U.)■ George Van Goethem (EC)

Members of the ETKM Working Group involved in thepreparation of the report:

Figure 1: SNETP Organisation Chart

Editors: ETKM Working Group and SNETP Secretariat | Design: LGI Consulting with NoèmeCopy

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Nuclear Education and Training - SNETP · Nuclear Education and Training ... and an ageing workforce, the shortage of ... risks becoming a severe constraint. In view of