The sector has presented a plan to the government to be able to ensure the construction of the next generation of power plants and the maintenance of current infrastructure.
The nuclear industry presented to the government a “Marshall” plan to recruit in the sector, Friday, June 9 in Caen, to the three ministers concerned, Energy Transition, Research and Vocational Training. To be able to ensure the construction of the next generation of power plants and the maintenance of the current ones, it will be necessary to recruit 100,000 people in the next ten years and to set up training courses, but time is running out.
As early as 2019, the industrialist Jean-Martin Foltz made a clear statement in a report commissioned by the government on the Flamanville fiasco: the nuclear sector was suffering from a loss of skills due to the lack of projects and policies unfavorable to nuclear energy. ‘atom. Since then, there has been the revival carried out by Emmanuel Macron in his Belfort speech and the new nuclear projects.
“We’re starting a bit far”
But the die is not easily reassembled. “We have a real concern for the attractiveness of training that leads to industrial professions. We have 30 years of deindustrialization in France behind us, so that’s really the point”, says Hélène Badia, president of the university of nuclear professions, a structure created by the major companies in the sector. She also notes that “for a moment we say: ‘we are going to close nuclear power’. Now is the time “nuclear revival” but, she thinks,“we are starting from a bit far, we have to get the teachers on board, we have to manage to ensure that they know our jobs better. We have to recreate these technical and industrial sectors.”
“We have to get the teachers on board, we have to get them to know our jobs better. We have to recreate these technical and industrial sectors.”
Hélène Badia, President of the University of Nuclear Professionsfranceinfo
The objective is also to encourage students to specialize in nuclear energy. The plan presented to the government aims to strengthen work-study training, short and long training courses as well as the orientation of students towards scientific and technical professions. The Ministry of Higher Education has put in place measures that allow students to gain faster access to the professional environment. For the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Sylvie Retailleau, it is not about discount training pressed by urgency. THE “specific skills” and the “security issues” will not be omitted according to her.
“Students who are today doing a master’s degree in physics, chemistry, a huge number of disciplines can, in the last year of their master’s degree, choose a course in industrial engineering, nuclear engineering, radioactivity, etc. So nuclear power is also a specialization based on disciplines. That’s why we can go very quickly”, assures the Minister. To complete the training and manage to recruit 100,000 people, the sector has also launched initiatives for the general public such as a website dedicated to nuclear jobs or a recruitment week in partnership with Pôle emploi.