Professional training

Professional training is provided by the French nuclear industry, regulator and research organizations. Some jobs and skills are exclusively learnable through industrials trainings, such as operator or maintenance technicians. France has an extensive network of training facilities dedicated to nuclear energy.

EDF delivers initial, continuing, and advanced nuclear training over 22 training centres covering a broad range of skills. Orano and Framatome have international training facilities including simulator training or experimental reactor training, offering both practical and theoretical training. Beyond a large variety of technical training courses, below are some examples of the training services also possible.

Training of Senior Officials and Industry Executives: Training senior officials or industry executives is very important because they require specific skills and know how that are not necessarily available through academic courses or off-the-shelf industry courses. Experience tells us that this small, yet key group needs training, tailored made for all individuals, considering their needs to make them job-ready for the oversight of a nuclear programme or project. The I2EN can organize such training as the French nuclear sector can cover a very wide variety of subjects and have an approach best suited for senior government officials or industry senior executives.

Training of Civil Servants: Government has a big responsibility in putting together a nuclear policy, drafting a nuclear law, setting up a regulatory framework, preparing a pre-feasibility study, etc. The I2EN can propose training for those that oversee all these activities that fall under the remit of the government.

Training Personnel of “Expanding Countries”: Countries with mature nuclear power programmes are facing several challenges specifically with respect to a workforce weakened by the attrition of the workforce because of the retirement of a generation of skilled workers and project managers. These challenges are more acute in the event of a new build programme for so-called expanding countries. The I2EN can set up training programmes for the new generation of engineers and NPP staff that need the expertise of the French nuclear industry to ensure that that can build and operate safe nuclear power plants.

Reskilling: Some of the jobs required in the NPP can be filled by employees from other similar industries such as coal, hydro, petroleum, etc. The I2EN can arrange for the reskilling of such employees and bring them the aptitudes needed for them to meet the requirements of the nuclear industry.

Managing a Nuclear Fleet: With 56 reactors in operation, France has the world’s most experience of managing a fleet of reactors. Proper fleet management impacts operation and maintenance, cost optimization, quality control, etc. It should be noted that France uses load following. The I2EN can set up training on such matters and train on this specific subject.

Electrical Grid: When building a new nuclear power plant, an assessment of the electrical grid’s current and planned size and reliability is required. French experts can perform the assessment. The I2EN can bring together the right experts to train the teams to become a knowledgeable customer if the assessment is outsourced.

Stakeholder involvement: Public acceptance of a nuclear energy programme is necessary for its success. It is very important that the communication teams are trained to manage communications, consultation of stakeholders, and public affairs. Typically, the training proposed can cover many areas, include study tours to gain understanding on site of building relationships at the local level, engaging with politicians, etc. Specific courses can also address crisis communication, an area where France has extensive experience.

Train the trainers: It is a compact training programme that focuses both on specific training content and on how to teach this training content to others. It can be organized on many topics and for many different skills. The objective is to help the client to become more self-sufficient.

Nuclear safety culture and management system: Participants will acquire an understanding of the main principles of an integrated management system and the benefits of adopting such a system; an understanding of how to establish, implement, assess and improve an integrated management system for their own organization based on a process approach; an ability to use the principles, methods and tools to develop, implement, monitor and improve a process.

Closed fuel cycle and radioactive waste management: The front-end of the fuel cycle: ore extraction, conversion and enrichment, fuel fabrication and use in the power plant, spent fuel reprocessing and recycling of re-enriched reprocessed U and Pu as MOX in PWR; and the back-end of the fuel cycle: the radioactive waste management, ranging from waste characteristics, waste treatment technologies, disposal technologies, safety assessment of geologic disposal.

Security of transport of hazardous substances: The transportation of radioactive materials (sources, fuel, spent fuel, waste, etc.) use different transit systems: road, rail, air, maritime, and fluvial. The French industry has extensive experience in this area and have the capacity to train about the regulatory framework, the security measures, etc.

Introductory Course to Small Modular Reactors: France has created a consortium for the development of the Nuward SMR. Although SMRs face similar challenges as large NPPs (passive safety features, licensing, etc.), countries envisaging the development of an SMR fleet needing to understand the specificities of this technology and so forth.

Although this list could seem fairly extensive, these are only some examples of what the I2EN and the French nuclear stakeholder can provide. We will offer solutions for each request.

For information: contact@i2en.fr