Foreign workers will be needed to provide the skills to increase the UK’s nuclear power capacity, an expert has conceded.
EDF Energy HR director Tim Boylin told Personnel Today that the firm would look to its French parent to supply specialist nuclear workers.
A government consultation on the role of nuclear power in providing a low-carbon future for the UK closes on 10 October. EDF Energy has put itself forward to build the new power stations mooted, and Boylin said whoever won such contracts would need to look outside the UK.
Boylin said: “Given the current level of UK nuclear activity, the skillset is likely to be depleted so it makes lots of sense to look to places with more active engineering expertise.
“The EDF Group is a potential provider of nuclear power but finding staff to do that would be a challenge. We would seek to import staff from our French parent company.”
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However, Boylin added that this wave of French imports could be used to train UK workers in nuclear skills.
“The first new nuclear power stations might be operating by 2017, so we have 10 years for the industry to gear itself up,” he said. “The battle is not lost.”
