nuclear-news

Slight hitch, bad planning! USA- 39 percent of nuclear-industry workers will reach retirement by 2016

5:59 PM, Oct 27, 2012

U.S. aims to broaden its electricity sources while curbing emissions and an impending glut of retirement-eligible workers promise major changes in the nuclear induustry work force.

The Nuclear Energy Institute says 39 percent of the country’s nuclear-industry workers will reach retirement age by 2016, which could lead to a significant loss of experience and knowledge of how to safely use nuclear power — an issue that has great import in the wake of last year’s earthquake and tsunami that battered a reactor in Japan.

Entergy Mississippi has teamed with Mississippi universities and high schools to make sure the next generation of nuclear-power workers will be ready to lead the industry into the future.

 

A power systems laboratory is part of Jackson State University’s new electrical-engineering program, while dozens of Alcorn State University students are learning about radiation protection as part of studies in health physics. And Entergy is collaborating with the Lawrence and Lamar county school districts, with at least two other districts expected to join, to bring energy industry fundamentals to students through year-long programs.

“It’s really a microcosm of what’s going on in the electric-utility industry and in heavy industry. We did a lot of hiring 20-30 years ago and (those workers) have now reached retirement age,” said John Wheeler, Entergy Mississippi’s manager of work force planning.

About 20 percent of the utility’s overall work force of about 2,000 people will reach retirement age over the next four years, he said, although it’s not clear how many will opt to end their careers versus staying on at facilities like Entergy’s Grand Gulf nuclear station in Port Gibson.

 

If too many workers are lost at once to retirement, it could stymie the growth of a company whose economic impact in Mississippi already is almost $1 billion, according to a study from Global Strategies Inc., a Mississippi business-consulting firm.

“We expect to see a gradual increase, year over year, in the number of people” who could retire, Wheeler said.

Needing a new supply of workers to fill whatever gaps are created led Entergy to donate $500,000 to JSU’s College of Science, Engineering and Technology to create the laboratory and fundscholarships for the electrical-engineering program.

Classes began this fall, and the laboratory will give students hands-on, realistic simulations of properly generating and transmitting electricity derived from nuclear energy and other sources, says Mahmoud Manzoul, who chairs the school’s Department of Computer Engineering.

Such programs are becoming common at universities nationwide, he said, as the nation’s electricity grid needs to be retooled for larger-scale, more efficient power delivery and as electric power could become a more common fuel source for automobiles.

“People are investing in the grid again,” Manzoul said. “The advantage here is that we have Entergy in town.”

Entergy also put up $100,000 toward ASU’s radiation-protection studies. At least 15 students with a grade-point average of 3.0 or more have received scholarships, gone on to intern at Grand Gulf and other Entergy facilities and to be mentored by company employees.

Amber Harris graduated from ASU’s program and has worked at Grand Gulf for a year following an internship there while in college. She’s tasked with monitoring radiation levels at the plant and ensuring workers are safely protected from it as they work.

She learned about nuclear science as a nursing major when studying medical X-ray technology. She says she grew more fascinated by how nuclear energy works and decided to switch majors.

“It’s prepared me very well,” Harris said of ASU’s health-physics program. “I’m glad (Entergy) came out to the campus and chose some of us” for internships.

There is again construction of nuclear facilities in the U.S., as the memories of the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania more than 33 years ago grow increasingly distant and as nuclear operators have made strides in safety standards, says NEI spokesman Mitch Singer.

Facilities are being built in Georgia and South Carolina that will employ hundreds of people, while the more than 100 other reactors operating nationally will need new talent, too, adds Sam Aceil, a professor of advanced technologies at Alcorn State.

“There is a shortage of manpower in this area,” he said. “Alcorn State had a (desire) to be more involved with Grand Gulf.” The school’s program is designed to teach effective ways of working safely with nuclear energy.

To prepare for the possible glut of retirements, the nuclear industry is drawing up detailed succession plans and rehiring as consultants people who already have retired from the industry, Singer said. NEI has helped craft a nuclear-energy curriculum that is being offered at 38 community colleges across the country, none in Mississippi.

Singer says he’s in talks with state officials about introducing the curriculum in the state.Wheeler said Hinds Community College is in line to be the first to offer an energy systems technology program adapted from a process operations technician program offered at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

At JSU, Manzoul says the electrical-engineering program has just six students but adds the state College Board recently approved allowing him to recruit students for the program, which should help its ranks grow. Aceil’s three-year-old health physics program at Alcorn currently counts about 50 students.

Nuclear energy will figure greatly in what Mississippi Development Authority Executive Director Brent Christensen described as an “all-of-the-above” exploration of electricity sources that can help the state grow its energy-related jobs in nuclear energy, oil, gasoline, natural gas and other resources.

To that end, the state is hosting what it calls its first-ever energy careers job fair on Tuesday, from 10 a.m to 3 p.m., at the Mississippi Trademart. More than 50 organizations will be represented there, and organizers hope at least 1,000 job-seekers will attend.

“We’re trying to raise awareness with the public of the energy industry,” says Adam Todd, director of the Governor’s Job Fair Network. “You’ve got electricity. You’ve got oil. You’ve got gas. Transportation is a major part of it.”

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012310280024&gcheck=1&nclick_check=1

October 29, 2012 - Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized