Nuclear New Build

Clearly, nuclear new build is a significant engineering challenge, which, if it is to be completed quickly and safely, will require many engineers with relevant expertise and experience, as well as a fully connected supply chain. Even without new build in the UK, the entire nuclear industry employs over 18,000 graduates and skilled people and that number will have to increase if the closing power stations are to be decommissioned. In addition to nuclear new build and decommissioning, the UK will have to consider legacy waste management, next generation naval propulsion and retention of a deterrent capability, not to mention the many other major civil engineering programs that will be taking place nationally and internationally.

• Increasing energy demand, concerns over climate change and dependence on overseas supplies of fossil fuels are coinciding to make the case for nuclear build stronger.
• China plans a five-fold increase in nuclear capacity to 40 GW by 2020; India's target is to add 20 to 30 new reactors by 2020.
• Communities in Finland and Sweden have accepted the local construction of permanent disposal sites for nuclear waste.
• International cooperation in the field of nuclear science and technology is growing.

Since the millennium political and industrial rhetoric has shown increased interest in the revival of nuclear generation. In fact, some would say a 'renaissance' of sorts has been initiated in response to a previously diminishing industry. The notable geographical exception to this decline in production and investment has been in Eastern Europe and Asia, thus ensuring that in fact the percentage that nuclear generation occupies within the worlds electricity production has remained at a constant, at approximately 16%, since the 1980s. The international support for using low carbon omitting energy sources has placed nuclear right back at the top of the global political agenda. Global predictions for new build nuclear power stations are now on par if not exceeding the statistics from the formative years of nuclear production.

• Nuclear is recognised as the only alternative, electricity generating source to fossil fuels, with the capability of producing enough reliable and continuous energy to meet global demands.
• Plentiful supplies of uranium ensure that countries will no longer be plagued by the turbulent political and economic issues which so often have an effect on the fluidity of the supply of oil and gas.
• As global consensus is being reached on the production of new nuclear plants. International co-operation on research, trade and construction will no doubt lead to a far more competitively priced nuclear market.

Hundreds more reactors are still in the planning stages but the support nationally and globally are in place to ensure that nuclear power is the energy source of the future and the source which will answer the prayers of environmentalists and the world population alike. Whilst 80% of this expansion is still within countries with a pre-established nuclear industry, an additional 25 countries are actively seeking to integrate nuclear production into their national energy programmes. The impetus behind nuclear production is growing exponentially and the potential for recruitment collaboration, in order fill the ever-increasing demands for key skill sets, is truly massive.