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In this article in Nuclear Exchange, Pat Swords of PM Group discusses the inevitable nuclear renaissance that is on the horizon. It is clear that the nuclear industry requires the application of science and engineering in a highly technical environment, to ultra high standards and is driven by a demanding statutory and regulatory environment. However, today it is not the only industry that is required to meet such high standards
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Focus on Nuclear Power Generation, January 2011 30
progress which was evident on the
Finnish EPR site at Olkiluoto. Indeed
some aspects of construction relating to
deviations from the project’s technical
specifications have also been reported for
the EPR site at Flamanville in France.
What struck me about this article in
Der Spiegel was not that it was nuclear
related, but that it was just an example
of a project demonstrating deficient skills
in project management and construction.
It’s not as if such occurrences haven’t
happened before, they have. To me the
surprise was that they were happening
again on such a prestige project, when
there is a ready skill base out there,
which is schooled in delivering projects of
equal complexity, albeit at a smaller scale
and without a nuclear tag. It appears
several factors were overlooked when
the inevitable question was asked; how
are these new nuclear plants going to get
built?
Learn from the past
We cannot predict the future but we can
certainly learn from the past. The origins
of nuclear power began in 1954, but it
was not until 1970 that the technology
began to be rolled out, with 90 GW of
capacity coming on-stream in the 1970s,
rising to 200 GW in the 1980s, before
going into rapid decline. Most of these
plants are still with us today providing
reliable and cost effective power.
Without question the nuclear industry
requires the application of science
and engineering in a highly technical
As nuclear power plants are planned for construction around the globe much attention has been given to where qualified staff will be found to build and run these complex projects. However other industrial sectors offer an existing pool of highly talented professionals who are already trained in the safety culture and ‘gold standard’ required for the nuclear industry.
By Pat Swords, Associate Director, PM Group, Ireland
As a chemical engineer with more than
twenty years of experience in the design
and regulatory compliance of industrial
facilities in the chemical, pharmaceutical
and power generating sectors, it is
extremely unlikely that I will ever design
a nuclear plant. However, the skills I and
other similarly experienced professionals
have developed can certainly play a
major role in contributing to the inevitable
nuclear renaissance that is on the horizon.
The ‘spark’ for this article originated
when reading an article in Der Spiegel
in October 2009, which later appeared
in English on the on-line version as
“Nuclear Renaissance Stalls: Problems
Plague Launch of ‘Safer’ Next-Generation
Reactors”. The content of this was
related to the poor quality of project
Nuclear skills – is the glass half full?
The skills required to meet the ‘gold standard’ of the nuclear industry are
now available in a variety of complex industrial sectors. Pictured is
the placement of the containment liner at Olkiluoto, Finland.
Photo: Areva NP
31 Focus on Nuclear Power Generation, November 2010
environment, to ultra high standards and
driven by a demanding statutory and
regulatory environment. In those days it
was probably the only ‘kid on the block’
operating to those standards. These days
it most certainly is not.
There is no reason why 200 GW of
capacity per decade cannot be achieved
again, even exceeded, as is projected
by the International Energy Agency. It
will require a huge application of skilled
manpower, but the glass is very much
half full and not half empty, the starting
base is very much stronger than it was
in 1970.
Cogent, the UK Skills for Science based
Industries has produced an excellent
document on “Next Generation: Skills
for New Build Nuclear”. This document
clearly outlines the resource requirements
and timeframes associated with the
delivery of 16 GW of nuclear new build
in the UK, an average of 10,000 jobs per
year. It states: “To deliver a new nuclear
programme in the UK of this scale or
larger will require a significant number
of people across a range of disciplines.
Meeting this requirement will be a
challenge, given the existing size and
demographics of the sector”.
As Cogent rightly points out: “Skills
planning for a nuclear build requires long
induction periods for some skills due to
the high levels of training and experience
required to produce the highest levels
of workmanship, quality assurance and
quality control for many aspects of a
safety critical sector”.
There is a natural tendency to
concentrate on the fact that the majority
of employees in the nuclear industry are
rapidly closing in on retirement age, and
on the very long timeframe it would take
to bring school leavers through additional
education and job experience to reach
the necessary standards. The conclusion
therefore is that the glass is half empty,
if even that. However, let’s consider the
other ‘kids on the block’.
Meeting the gold standard
Huge advances in both technical and
organisation measures have occurred in
many companies and corporations in the
last three decades. The consequence
of this is that accidents with adverse
impacts to both man and environment
have significantly reduced in many
Western Countries over that period, with
in many cases a parallel development in
the system of regulation and inspection,
which in many cases enforced these
more advanced measures of control
over a wide range of industrial sectors.
While in the past the nuclear industry
was the ‘gold standard’ and the rest were
very much also-rans, currently there are
a lot of ‘gold standard’ projects being
delivered in a variety of complex industrial
sectors. The skill base is there, just
slightly different. Most importantly the
required culture and behaviour to operate
safely in a nuclear environment is already
ingrained.
What is also a recurrent theme is that
many technical and organisational
measures that evolved in the nuclear
industry and then stagnated, got ‘picked
up’ by other sectors and were refined
and became common practice. For
instance, from a regulatory perspective,
radiological emergency response was
well established in the 1970s, but the
equivalent level of off-site emergency
preparedness was not extended to the
non-nuclear high risk industrial sectors
until the mid-1980s (Seveso I Directive
in Europe and the EPCRA Act in the
US). These days risk assessment, risk
mitigation and emergency preparedness
are key aspects to be found right
throughout the processing sector.
Another example is that both
the chemical and pharmaceutical
sectors process compounds that are
carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic for
reproduction (CMR). Sealed systems,
such as gloveboxes, originally developed
for the nuclear industry, are now routine
About Pat SwordsPat Swords is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and a Chartered Environmentalist. Since graduation from University College Dublin in 1986 Pat has worked for PM Group in developing the high technology manufacturing industry in Ireland. His work experience has also included projects in over a dozen other countries throughout Europe and North America. Since 1999 he has worked extensively on EU Technical Aid Projects in Central and Eastern Europe helping to implement EU Industrial Pollution Control and Control of Major Accident Hazards legislation. See www.pmgroup.eu
Risk based Verification
Focus on Nuclear Power Generation, January 2011 32
in that sector, in which occupational
exposure below 1 μg/m3 and even as
low as 1 ng/m3 are to be found (Note:
A nanogram is one billionth of a gram).
Indeed the engineering challenge is even
greater, the release of radioactivity is easy
to detect while that of complex chemical
compounds is not. There therefore
has to be an enormous emphasis on
Commissioning and Qualification (C&Q)
to ensure that the system performs
continuously to its design intent. This also
applies to product quality, such as where
sterile solutions are routinely produced for
direct intravenous applications.
The field of C&Q has thus been highly
refined in the pharmaceutical sector.
The latest approach is based on the
ASTM E2500 – 07: “Standard Guide for
Specification, Design, and Verification of
Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical
Manufacturing Systems and Equipment”.
Application of this is intended to satisfy
international regulatory expectations in
ensuring that manufacturing systems
and equipment are fit for intended use,
and to satisfy requirements for design,
installation, operation, and performance.
See the Figure 1 for Risk Based
Verification.
Look after your people
Construction safety is also a key item
in the chemical and pharmaceutical
industries. Not only are there the
obvious ethical considerations, but large
multinational companies, particularly in
the healthcare sector, have a standing
and image in the community that they
wish to maintain. Furthermore, that
people are your strongest asset is not
a cliché. If you want to operate at the
cutting edge of science and technology
you have to look after your people, if
you don’t they will go elsewhere. The
benchmark used for construction safety
is the OSHA Day Away / Restricted or
Transfer (DART) rate; US Bureau of Labor
Statistics gave a national average OSHA
DART rate reported for the construction
industry in 2008 of 2.5. PM Group has
achieved figures ranging from 0.25 to
2.5 on a variety projects throughout
Europe. Safe construction sites can be
realised, for instance on the Shell Corrib
gas terminal in the West of Ireland on
two occasions a million manhours were
worked without a lost time accident.
The key is a proper safety culture and
a constant attention to detail, i.e. a
disciplined approach.
In conclusion you do not need to be a
nuclear scientist to contribute to the
nuclear new build programme, indeed
the approach of the Generic Design
Assessment will be that a limited number
of standard designs will be implemented.
The necessary skills to be deployed for
the nuclear new build are already present,
but currently operating in a different
sector.