'Act now' to recruit for nuclear industry, says expert

A nuclear leakage emergency drill is held in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong province on March 11, 2013. [Photo/VCG]

China must immediately step up the training of talent for the nuclear industry, as major nuclear companies, which are at different stages of pushing a new generation of nuclear power, face an impending lack of engineers, experts said.

The shortage will be particularly acute in nuclear construction, as China represents about 40 to 50 percent of all nuclear power plants to be built in the world, said Robert Massy, vice-president of global talent management at the US-based Westinghouse Electric Co.

"It is a young industry here. The first thing is that you need people to build new nuclear power plants, of which the number will amount to more than 100 in the future. So there will be a short supply (of talent) if you don't act now," Massy said during the ninth International Youth Nuclear Congress in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Massy, who is on the front line of the nuclear labor market, said that besides nuclear engineers, other types of engineers such as operators and mechanical engineers will be in short supply, too.

"Once the plants are being built, the demand for operators and maintenance personnel who understand nuclear power plants will be significant, and those roles are equally important," he said.

For the nuclear industry, which requires high-level skills, the shortage cuts across the entire sector, from the building stage to operations to the decommissioning phase over the next decades, said Lu Daogang, a nuclear engineering professor at North China Electric Power University.

"In a post Fukushima landscape, the nuclear industry's prospects remain positive. But the question is where to find professional and skilled people, not only for construction, but also for nuclear technology development, digital control, nuclear fuel supply and treatment," Lu said.

Zhang Huazhu, chairman of the China Nuclear Energy Association, said last year that the next decade will see a huge demand for experts in advanced nuclear technology and nuclear operations and management. This will allow the country to reduce its reliance on foreign countries and to develop homegrown technologies, he said.

"More efforts should be put into education, exposing students to simulation laboratories to improve their ability to innovate," Zhang added.

lvchang@chinadaily.com.cn