The skilled labor requirements are immense, to renovate the existing park as if to carry out the projects of new reactors.
by marjorie cessac
“Look for desperately” sodators “. Like many other sectors of activity, but with even more sensitive consequences in the midst of energy crisis, the nuclear sector now has many trades in tension, on which it struggles to recruit. A doubly problematic situation, while EDF must meet the needs of its existing power plant park – plagued by corrosion problems – while carrying out, in parallel, its project to build six new EPRs, called “EPR2” , with an option for an additional eight, according to the roadmap presented by President Macron in February 2022.
In this context, explains the national company, the sector wishes to recruit, over the period 2023-2030, at least 10,000 to 15,000 people per year, instead of the 5,000 annuals between 2019 and 2022. “An employee on Two who will work in the sector in 2030 does not work today, so there is a major challenge to attract, train, recruit, accelerate the experience and skills of newcomers, “said Alain Tranzer, general delegate for industrial quality and nuclear skills of EDF, during a press conference.
“I believe that there is no other large industrial sector which has a charge plan with so much load increase in the coming years,” he added. For its part, the group of French nuclear energy industrialists (Gifen) evokes 10,000 annual recruitments. The latter has set up a program, “match”, a tool which aims to adequate between the needs and resources of the sector in more than 80 professions, and whose conclusions are scheduled for March 2023.
With regard to EPR2 projects, the Penly site (Seine-Maritime), envisaged to build the first pair of new reactors, could represent, if it crosses the stages of the public debate and if he obtains the Green Green Green, 7,500 employees during its peak of activity, in 2029. “If the decision (politics) is taken quickly, we expect the possibility of starting preparatory work on this site in mid-2024, for a Commissioning by 2035-2037, “detailed Gabriel Oblin, project director for nuclear reactors EPR2.