Comment: The future of careers in nuclear

One of the world’s greatest challenges is to build a clean, secure, and reliable energy system, which is fit for the future. Nuclear power is and will continue to be a critical part of that future energy system, a point that is widely recognised, and has created significant positive momentum behind nuclear power right now.

In the UK, this momentum can be seen in recent developments, including the work of ‘Great British Nuclear’, which is delivering the SMR competition, with plans for another programme for ‘advanced’ SMRs (AMRs) to follow it.

There have been others: Sizewell C was recently granted its site licence meaning a second large scale reactor after Hinkley Point C is continuing to progress, as well as growing discussion for a third reactor, likely to be built in Wales. Outside of power generation, my own organisation, Urenco, is working with the UK government to develop a production facility for advanced fuels (including high assay low enriched uranium - HALEU), which will ensure we can fuel the reactors of the future.

Even in the politically charged time of the general election, both main parties held firm in their continued support for nuclear power.

The future, therefore, is bright, in terms of a new generation of reactors in hand, and future nuclear technologies as well. But the importance of the people and the skills to deliver these future ambitions is paramount and is just as critical as the next generation technologies themselves.

When discussing nuclear skills, often the focus is on the need to fill the gaps, and there is a tendency to look at the funding of skills programmes (very important of course!). But at Urenco, we believe individual companies in the sector can also do much to attract new talent and ensure that a career in nuclear is rewarding and appeals to the next generation of nuclear workers.

What is a job in nuclear?

After all, nuclear has so much to offer, and no two jobs in nuclear are the same.

Just at Urenco alone, our careers on the technical side range from our Plant Engineers, who deliver core enrichment work, to our Design Managers, who deliver our complex multi-disciplinary projects. And these are very different from those who work in our nuclear licensing and compliance teams, to ensure we uphold our number one value: safety.

Outside of our core operations, we have people working on everything from medical isotopes to nuclear stewardship.

And away from the ‘technical’ side of the business, we have people working on all elements of business services and support, from sales to communications.

These are all ‘nuclear jobs’, and they have an important role to play in helping Urenco achieve its vision of a sustainable net zero world.

Attracting the best talent

That vision of net-zero is – as it turns out – a major element in attracting and retaining the best possible talent.  

Last year we undertook an exercise to understand what appeals to young people and current candidates about a career in nuclear. In a survey undertaken with the British Science Association to understand the attitudes of young people towards nuclear energy and careers in the sector, we found that 60 per cent understood the role nuclear must play in helping to achieve net zero, and more than two thirds believed a career in nuclear would be challenging and fulfilling. Positive results, yes, but digging deeper, the survey found there was an overall lack of insight into opportunities within the sector.

Therefore, a way to attract more talent is to highlight the positive impact a career in nuclear energy has on the world, but we, the sector, need to better communicate the opportunities associated with working in nuclear energy.

Building the talent pipeline

One of our responses has been to launch a new Employee Value Proposition (EVP) last year, which shows why a career with Urenco offers so much. Simply ‘Enriching the world; enriching your future’, our EVP communicates our outward commitment to society and to our employees and it resonates through all of work, from our business strategy to our reward and recognition programme.

We’ve also worked hard to improve the candidate journey, with a refresh of our career websites. It is a simple thing but makes a vast difference; you only have one opportunity to make a first impression after all!

What might seem like small actions can have a big impact, however. We’re proud to report that our recruitment efforts have resulted in nearly 650 vacancies being filled, despite a challenging market.

But there is still plenty to do, especially for the next generation. For example, we have started new partnerships with the Universities of Cambridge and Manchester, to further our efforts to help nurture the next generation of scientists and engineers.

We have also invested heavily in internships, apprentices, and new graduates, and during 2023 we had 90 working across the organisation and look forward to welcoming more through our Early Careers programme.

For the interns and apprentices of the future, we continue to run our global Richie education programme, which supports STEM education in schools and online, and reached 57,000 children in 2023 alone.

It is important to get the message out there and ensure there are good pathways into the industry.

Making this the best job you ever had

Retention is the other critical element, and we want our employees to have the best possible career when they join us. We regularly engage our employees and have worked hard to ensure that our culture is strong. Our global culture themes were refreshed last year to increase efforts, particularly around inclusion and diversity.

We are also deepening our management and leadership initiatives and ran a new global leadership programme last year for 90 of our senior managers.

A bright future

We are investing heavily in our people because we know that our people are critical to our strategy and everything we do. There is no better investment to make; by making our people’s job at Urenco the best it can be, they will drive our success. Ultimately, the way to achieve the bright future that is so very possible for nuclear, is through our people.

Dan Perry, Head of Talent Acquisition, Urenco