Rita Baranwal, the US Department of Energy’s former assistant secretary for its Office of Nuclear Energy under the Trump administration, told the 2021 Utility Working Conference that the EPRI’s research and training initiatives take the challenge of knowledge transfer into consideration, and “we have a really unique place in preparing the next generation of workers across roles and organisation levels. We provide them with tools and resources to ensure reliable ongoing operation of the nuclear fleet.”
“Changing the way we operate is going to require a highly trained workforce, and accelerating training initiatives is one of EPRI’s institutional priorities, as it is for the nuclear sector at EPRI as well,” Ms Baranwal said, according to a report by the American Nuclear Society.
The standardised task evaluation (STE) programme is one way that EPRI is meeting this industry need, according to Ms Baranwal. STEs are used by nuclear power plant owners and workforce providers to qualify workers for a variety of standardised tasks. At the moment, she said, there are over 100 STEs available in the areas of maintenance and radiation protection.
Ms Baranwal said the nuclear industry needs to change the way it does business. She said: “We have chugged along quietly for decades... We need to talk about how we operate and why we are important to the decarbonisation of the electricity sector, the transportation sector.
“We also need to move more quickly and more nimbly because things are changing very quickly with respect to new technologies, new processes, and organisational structures. And we need to be more efficient, making sure that we are achieving cost reductions.”
