Skills shortage may dent Gulf's nuclear power initiatives (page 1 of 2)

As China plans to construct more than 100 reactors by 2020, and nations such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar prepare to build their first atomic plants, existing facility operators are already struggling to replace retiring workers. Many of those working for nuclear operators now were employed in the 1980s, and are nearing the time when they will hang up their white coats for good. "You had rapid growth and then a few very quiet decades, particularly after the Chernobyl disaster, so it's not surprising that there's an age gap," says Samuel Ciszuk, an energy economics analyst with UK-based consultancy KBC.

"The oil industry is a very good parallel: you have a very big age gap in many Western companies because of the many years of low oil prices, when companies were constantly shedding people rather than hiring, hence losing the interest of a lot of potential students," he tells AMEinfo.com. "There have not been any new nuclear plants to work at - and plants have been closing down instead - and that's had a big impact on the industry."

The problem is a global one. Just last month the United Kingdom's Royal Society of Chemistry warned that the country would have to invest more in the physical sciences to ensure that the UK will have sufficient numbers of skilled people to build and maintain new nuclear facilities. "It is essential that we invest now in education and training to guarantee that our future nuclear workforce can meet the demands of the 21st century," urged RSC president Professor David Phillips.

And last July the UK's chief inspector of atomic installations warned that the March 2011 Fukushima disaster, where a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and then a tsunami devastated a six-reactor facility at Daiichi, Japan, may worsen the skills shortage in the nuclear industry.

"There is a question about the market hardening in terms of the people with the right skills," said Mike Weightman, who led the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) fact-finding team to the devastated Japanese plant.

"Nuclear knowledge management is a concern of ours," admits Dr Hans-Holger Rogner, section head at the Department of Nuclear Energy at the IAEA. "We see an ageing workforce in many countries, in particular those countries which have an anti-nuclear policy, or no prospect of young people entering the industry - Germany, for example."

New initiatives to attract talent

The UAE is currently doing everything it can to ensure that young people recognise the benefits of a career in the nuclear industry. The country is expected to become the first Arab nation to produce nuclear power when its Braka 1 and Braka 2 reactors come on-line from 2017, and it currently relies on expertise from around the world. It has struck international partnerships with nuclear bodies including the IAEA, the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, the US Department of Energy (DoE), the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the French Nuclear Safety Authority, to glean information, resources and expertise from those countries which have long-established civilian nuclear power programmes.

The UAE's Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), the independent nuclear watchdog, has also enlisted the services of specialised technical support organisations (TSOs) from around the world, which provide regulatory, engineering and technical services to support FANR, and in particular, its review of the first construction licence application for a nuclear power plant.

Well aware that the country is reliant on a shallow - and fast-draining - pool of foreign expertise, those charged with bringing nuclear power to the UAE are also working hard to train their own nuclear technicians, engineers and scientists.