The nuclear sector calls for a “Marshall plan” to recruit its future professionals

The nuclear industry presents to the government, Friday, June 9, a “Marshall plan”. The objective: to attract and train the 100,000 agents it considers necessary over the next ten years to support the revival of the atom in France. Today “the main issue is an issue of attractiveness: the training courses already exist but they are not well known and it is a question of filling them”explained Hélène Badia, president of the “University of nuclear professions”, an entity created in 2021 by companies in the sector.

The plan will be given to the three ministers concerned, Energy Transition, Research and Vocational Training, during a trip to Normandy (Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Sylvie Retailleau and Carole Grandjean). The latter must also announce the allocation of 25 million euros to two French projects for “innovative reactors” as part of the France 2030 investment program: the start-up Newcleo, which is working on a fast neutron reactor using lead, and the start-up Naarea which wants to develop a “4th generation micro-generator operating with molten salts” from used fuel.

The plan drawn up by Hélène Badia contains “concrete actions, to meet considerable needs”, she described during a conference with journalists. Among them, a website for the general public (monavenirdanslenucleaire.fr), a week of nuclear careers organized with Pôle emploi, measures to include as many people as possible (women, populations from priority neighborhoods in the city and rural areas, creation bridging classes for students failing at school, recruitment through sport, etc.), increase in retraining, presentation of these professions at college. And this, from the next school year.