Thursday, 27 August 2015

'Mind the (nuclear skills) gap' and 'Managing new nuclear- what's new?'

We're still here! The site is undergoing some changes, including improvements to the podcasting side and some new 'nuclear crowd-sourced' posts. This is all thanks to a renewed interest from many new faces, soon to grace this here website.


First though I'd like to share some new articles!

Managing New Nuclear – what’s new?
http://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/posts/2015/08/managing-new-nuclear-whats-new/

Mind the (nuclear skills) gap
http://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/posts/2015/08/mind-the-nuclear-skills-gap/

These posts confirm for me some suspicions I've long had about the nuclear industry - an impending skills gap, the requirement for non-UK investment and an industry-academia separation. Although I don't agree with everything these authors have written (perhaps an insight into my inner-scepticism) the overall impression from both is one of panicked enthusiasm.

I'd love to know what you think, post a comment below, or tweet us. 



Mark Williams

at Thursday, August 27, 2015
Labels: , , , , , ,

Comments (6)

Loading... Logging you in...
Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout
  • Logged in as
Loading...
+1 Vote up Vote down
Term Insurance's avatar - Go to profile

Term Insurance 51p · 297 weeks ago

Great post. Thanks for sharing this post.
+1 Vote up Vote down
Elizabeth's avatar

Elizabeth · 499 weeks ago

I'd be interested to know what you're inwardly sceptical about in relation to those articles?
1 reply · active 499 weeks ago
Loading...
+1 Vote up Vote down
Nuc_Hitch's avatar - Go to profile

Nuc_Hitch 2p · 499 weeks ago

I'm not sure greater expertise, to fill a 'skills gap' in nuclear, guarantees a nuclear power future for the U.K.

A decentralised energy sector lacks the foresight to invest in long term projects, which may take 10+ years to show returns on investment. This, in my view, is why we haven't seen any new nuclear plants in the last 20 years, and I think until that changes we are unlikely to see anywhere near our previous growth. Sure, foreign investor owned nuclear power stations will be necessary. But it doesn't provide the same security, as in employment and wholesale cost, that a state owned facility can.

New nuclear is a really interesting topic, and we have a lot of expertise in the U.K. regarding new nuclear design, I'd really like it to be a topic of some future discussion at the blog.

Not so inward now...
Mark
0 Vote up Vote down
Tom 's avatar

Tom · 499 weeks ago

It would seem that there are too many similarities between previous UK nuclear ventures and those being considered today, with no practical lessons being brought forward. A large diversity of rector designs are being proposed from a number of potential developers and limited thought given to the decommissioning challenges that will be faced in the Future by the industry.

Although investors require freedoms within the market place to choose which design they believe will provide the greatest return, ultimately it is the UK government who will be responsible for the regulation of both operations and final clean up of the proposed reactors. A responsibility that would be eased both logistically and financially if the potential rector designs were limited and greater efforts made to standardise the industry.

Tom
1 reply · active 499 weeks ago
Loading...
+1 Vote up Vote down
Nuc_Hitch's avatar - Go to profile

Nuc_Hitch 2p · 499 weeks ago

Which reactor designs do you think the U.K. should limit its new build plans to?

Post a new comment

Comments by

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)