Ageing workforce
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Definition
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Summary
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Description 1
Regulators
Ageing workforce. Unlike the situations of the utilities and R&D organizations regulatory personnel requires additional set of knowledge. These include interpersonal, legal basis, and others as outlined by IAEA TECDOC 1254. Regulatory body personnel usually have high level of job security. In other words, regulatory organizations usually have low personnel turn over. For this reason, the management of the regulatory body usually doesn’t see the risk of losing manpower/knowledge as an imminent challenge. By the time that the danger becomes evident, it is usually too late because the competency needed for the regulatory works cannot simply obtained from formal education systems
Description 2
In the USA, the general consensus concerning nuclear power appears clear; it is no longer a question of whether new plants will be built but when and where. Recently, at the winter 2005 meeting of the American Nuclear Society, Patrick Moore, founder of Greenpeace and keynote speaker at the conference, noted that “nuclear power is the only viable source of clean, non-carbon generating and efficient energy that can adequately sustain current and future economic growth without significant impact to the environment.” This is a significant shift in the general attitude in the USA concerning the use, advancement and growth of nuclear science and technology in support of energy generation. This positive attitude towards nuclear power is also becoming the norm based on increasing public agreement that, in fact, greenhouse gas production is having an impact on the global climate. Additionally, events such as the power blackout in the eastern USA and the financial impact of Hurricane Katrina resulting from damage to the oil production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico underscore the need for the active pursuit of alternative energy sources.
The anticipated growth in nuclear generating capacity coupled with recent and continuing life extension of existing plants create an unprecedented demand for a unique workforce resource: the individual qualified in all of the traditional nuclear power support disciplines. However, in sustaining and advancing the nuclear industry, emphasis and attention are also being placed on the research and development of next generation reactor types and fuel cycle management options and technologies. These efforts will further draw on the same workforce needed to operate and maintain current plants. To complicate an already challenging workforce picture, the construction and licensing of new nuclear energy production facilities will further negatively affect the available workforce. Also within the USA, other industry sectors will be competing for the same college and technical graduates. There are two other complicating factors. The USA faces the issue of a ‘greying’ workforce where literally half the current workers will be eligible to retire within the next five years. Secondly, the lead time required to produce an individual capable of safely operating the complex nuclear systems and technologies may exceed the timeframe available until substantial retirement of the existing workforce begins.
There are global dynamics affecting this workforce picture, as well. The USA has for many years been able to bring in workers from other countries attracted by the technical opportunities available. However, as other countries develop their own high technology infrastructure (not just in the energy sector), opportunities abound for those potential migrants to remain and work in their own country. This is having a significant impact on the USA’s capacity to attract technical talent to the nuclear industry. As new facilities are constructed and other necessary nuclear infrastructure and technology begin to emerge, the capability to attract new talent and have the requisite knowledge resources to train them will impact the capability to bring new facilities and support activities into operation in a timely manner to keep pace with energy demand.
In light of such diverse workforce challenges outlined in these examples, the nuclear industry has taken a more formal approach in recent years to managing its human assets, including developing strategies and programmes to capture, retain and transfer nuclear knowledge and skills.
Source: Knowledge Management for Nuclear Industry Operating Organizations
Description 3
The early 1990’s witnessed a significant change in management paradigms based on the recognition of knowledge as a vitally important resource in a fast moving, digital, globalized economy. As a consequence, the recognition of knowledge as a valuable asset in an organization has quickly led to accepting the idea that this resource can and should be managed, just as other basic resources such as labour, energy, commodities, means of production or capital equipment are managed. In rapid succession, a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and utilize knowledge, embodied either in individuals or embedded in organizational processes or practices, were developed.
In the nuclear field, a primary incentive for applying knowledge management principles came from the realization that the imminent retirement of the generation that developed, commissioned and initially operated the plants would lead to demographic gaps in the professional workforce. For many organizations operating in the nuclear industry, this sparked the interest in knowledge management, since knowledge management methods did promise a viable way to overcome the problems of the generation change. Therefore, the earliest initiatives in the nuclear field in applying knowledge management methods and tools focused on capturing and transferring critical knowledge from experienced staff nearing retirement to younger replacements.
Source: Guide on nuclear knowledge management
Description 4
Unlike the situations of the utilities and R&D organizations regulatory personnel equires additional set of knowledge. These include interpersonal, legal basis, and others as outlined y IAEA TECDOC 1254. Regulatory body personnel usually have high level of job security. In other words, regulatory organizations usually have low personnel turn over. For this reason, the management of the egulatory body usually doesn’t see the risk of losing manpower/knowledge as an imminent challenge. By he time that the danger becomes evident, it is usually too late because the competency needed for the regulatory works cannot simply obtained from formal education systems.
Source: Guide on nuclear knowledge management
References
[1] IAEA TECDOC 1254
