French Education: Nuclear Power Revival Starts With €100m For Training & Research

The French have infuriated the wind and sun cult by demanding more nuclear power generation, across Europe. The cult is equally annoyed by the (rather inconvenient) fact that the nuclear-powered French pay prices around half that suffered by their wind and solar-obsessed German neighbours, which doesn’t sit well with the myth about nuclear power being expensive.

Better still, given that there power supply doesn’t depend on the weather, the French don’t suffer the misery of routine power rationing and blackouts like their German neighbours, when the sun sets and/or calm weather sets in. In the absence of nuclear power from France and coal-fired power from Poland Germany’s power grid would have collapsed years ago.

The French set the benchmark for generating clean, safe and reliable nuclear power; they’ve been doing so for nearly 60 years and still get over 75% of their electricity from their nuclear plants, and export large volumes of what they generate to power-starved Germans and Brits.

The French are clearly committed to a nuclear-powered future, with their government announcing a €100 million investment in the education and training of the next generation of nuclear engineers, researchers and innovators.

France invests over €100 million to revive nuclear sector
Nuclear Newswire
Editorial
14 June 2023

France’s Ministry of Energy Transition last Friday announced an investment of more than €100 million ($108 million) in civil nuclear sector training, research, and innovation in alignment with President Emmanuel Macron’s October 2021 unveiling of the “France 2030” investment plan, as well as his February 2022 call for a “rebirth of France’s nuclear industry.” (Among other things, Macron’s envisioned rebirth includes the construction of at least six new nuclear reactors and life extensions for the country’s existing units.)

The breakdown: According to the ministry, funds will be allocated as follows:

• €42 million for training programs.
• €40 million for the modernization of the equipment of the Large Heavy Ion National Accelerator, or GANIL.
• €25 million for start-up firms Naarea and Newcleo—the first two winners in a call for innovative reactor proposals under the France 2030 plan.
• Significant public funding for the front-end design phase of Électricité de France’s Nuward small modular reactor project.

Plus: The Université des Métiers du Nucléaire has submitted a detailed action plan on skills so that the French nuclear industry is able to attract, train, and recruit the 100,000 people it would need over the next 10 years to carry out all its industrial projects, the ministry said.

The action plan, according to the announcement, “provides a business-by-business analysis of all existing training courses and proposes concrete actions for each one, such as the creation of new training courses or actions aimed at strengthening the attractiveness and visibility of the courses.”

The university offered a set of 30 concrete actions with the following aims:

• Strengthen the attractiveness of jobs and training in the nuclear field.
• Promote the orientation of students towards scientific and technical courses.
• Broaden recruitment pools to attract underrepresented groups to the nuclear industry.
• Adapt the offer of initial and continuing vocational training.
• Successfully integrate new employees into companies through what the ministry describes as “a sector strategy in terms of companionship and by facilitating intergenerational skills transfers.”

Nuclear Newswire