the sector will recruit 100,000 people in ten years

by time news

2023-06-09 17:25:14

The industrial reconquest of France will largely pass through its nuclear sector. This is in any case the vision of the public authorities, while six new reactors must be started and it will be necessary to extend the life of the existing fleet.

The government will therefore release an initial envelope of 2.5 billion euros to develop training. The announcement was made on Friday June 9 by the three ministers concerned, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, for energy transition, Sylvie Retailleau for research and Carole Granjean, for vocational training, during a trip to Caen.

Attract new talent

The needs are enormous. According to industrialists in the sector, who plead for the creation of a « plan Marshall », it will be necessary to recruit at least 100,000 people within ten years, or 10,000 per year, compared to around 1,500 today, for a sector which employs 220,000 employees. This shows the leap to be made, especially since if we take retirements into account, some 150,000 positions will have to be filled.

The subject of training is crucial for the sector, marked by the setbacks in the construction of the Flamanville EPR, partly linked to “a general loss of competence”according to the report written by Jean-Martin Folz in 2019. Most of the increase in needs should occur between 2027 and 2030. We must therefore start now.

84 shortage occupations

Several levers will be activated, in partnership with France Travail (the new name of Pôle emploi), national education and the regions concerned. The scholarship system, set up at the start of the 2022 academic year, should be made permanent and work-study will be encouraged. Bridge classes will also be created for students who are failing at school.

In total, 84 shortage occupations have been identified, in welding, boilermaking, civil engineering, or even engineering. “The main issue is that of attractiveness. The formations already exist, but they are not well known and it is a question of filling them”, underlines Hélène Badia, the president of the University of nuclear professions, which brings together the main contractors, such as EDF and Orano. On the site ” monavenirdanslenucleaire.fr “, some 4,500 jobs are already on offer, we remind Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher’s office.

Inventing the nuclear of the future

But the government also intends to encourage research into new, innovative small reactors. In 2022, in his Belfort speech on the revival of nuclear power, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, announced a fund of 500 million euros, as part of the France 2030 plan. The first two files have just been retained. This is the other part of the plan unveiled in Normandy on Friday June 9.

Two start-ups, Naaera and Newcleo, will share 25 million euros to continue their work. They are developing small 30 to 40 MW fast neutron reactors, known as 4e generation. The size of a large container, they have the particularity of using the long-lived waste produced by the current fleet.

“This money will allow us to increase our skills even faster”, enthuses Jean-Luc Alexandre, founding president of Naarea and former manager of Degrémont. The young company has 140 employees. They will be 200 at the end of the year and 300 next year. It has already raised 50 million euros and is counting “out of several hundred” by December. A digital twin will be ready this summer and a first prototype should see the light of day in 2027. “We are on a known technology, developed in 1942 in the United States and three reactors have worked. The system is intrinsically safe and there cannot be, for example, core meltdown,” assures Jean-Luc Alexandre.

Its small reactor, which produces both electricity and heat, could supply a large industrial site, a city of 100,000 inhabitants or even operate a seawater desalination plant sized for 2 million euros. residents.

Other small reactor projects will be supported

“The sector is teeming with innovation. There are at least 80 projects in the world developing small reactors based on nuclear fission and at least as many working on fusion. This is unheard of “, emphasizes Stéphane Sarrade, the director of energy programs at the Commissariat for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (CEA). In France, many of these new entrepreneurs are also former Astrid, the fast neutron reactor program developed by the CEA, abandoned in 2021.

A dozen projects should be submitted by the end of June to receive public support.

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