Manufacturers, including EDF, need these massive recruitments to respond to the relaunch of the nuclear program and to regain skills that have been partly lost.
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Massive recruitment in sight in the nuclear sector: EDF and the industries of this branch will need 13 000 people per year for the next decade. It is a question of ramping up with a view to the construction of the new generation of EPR2 power plants, announced by Emmanuel Macron… To be able to build them, the sector must regain many lost skills.
None of the six EPR2 reactors wanted by Emmanuel Macron is the subject of a firm order: and for good reason, the public consultation phases have just begun. And the necessary legal texts will not arrive before Parliament until next year. But after the industrial ordeal of the EPR in Flamanville, the nuclear industry no longer has the right to make mistakes. There is no longer any question of suffering from the problems of professional skills and staffing which have plagued the site, in particular forcing the resumption of particularly difficult welds.
The nuclear sector is now setting up the necessary training, knowing that some jobs will not be easy to find. Hélène Badia, president of the University of Nuclear Professions association, confirms this: “These professions, we know them. These are the trades of welder, boilermaker, pipe fitter, which are very operational trades. But we also have enormous needs in the engineering, civil engineering, design engineer, mechanical engineer and project manager professions, of course.”
EDF must recruit 3,000 people per year and other companies will have to find 10,000 a year for the next ten years. This involves both compensating for departures and increasing the workforce for the needs of future reactors, si their construction is confirmed. HAS them alone, they must absorb 40,000 jobs.