July-August 2018 NPJ

Re- Generating Nuclear By Sean Clark, AMMI Risk Solutions and Jim Little, Nuclear Energy Programs. Sean Clark Sean Clark directs the business development activities for AMMI Risk Solutions, a trusted and effective solutions-focused advisor and leader in specialty niche services and technologies for operational and enterprise risk management for the energy, industrial and commercial, transportation, health care, financial, and governmental sectors. He has over 42 years of diverse domestic and international experience in operations, regulation, equipment supply, design and construction, finance and contract law, and business development in the energy sector. Mr. Clark earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech. Synopsis One of the most important challenges facing the nuclear industry is the loss of talent due to the oncoming wave of retirements of the “Baby Boomer” generation and its replacement with a smaller pool of less-experienced and knowledgeable younger workers. New thinking must be undertaken by this tradition-bound industry to develop an understanding of the benefits of the culture and mindsets of the millennial generation in order to move from a “knowledge- based, experience-based” culture towards a “technology-based” culture, deploying “intelligent technologies’. Introduction The nuclear in- dustry, long a stal- wart of stability in the U.S., is experiencing significant challenges on two fronts: in the near term, the eco- nomics of nuclear power generation becoming less com- petitive; and in the longer term, a limited availability of future professional and craft talent necessary for continued operations due to the oncoming waves of retirements of the Baby Boomer generation. These two forces have interactive effects, and any viable solutions must address them in a systematic and integrated fashion. Radi- cal new thinking will be required by an industry steeped in a tradition of reliance upon “proven” past practices which have so far delivered a record of exceptional performance. Talent is an Expensive Necessity Managing the economics of nuclear plant operations, while maintaining the current high standards of performance and expectations, is becoming far more complex and difficult as the plants age and require significant upgrades and retrofits to continue operations beyond their originally envisioned lifetimes. The talent required to maintain performance is now the largest financial cost element of operations as the traditional business models relied upon large staffs of “knowledge workers” comprised of primarily Baby Boomers in whom resides most of the knowledge and expertise accumulated over the last 40 years of designing, licensing, building, and operating the existing nuclear fleet. Cost is the New King In the near term, the commercial viability of the existing domestic nuclear fleet is being challenged as never before both in merchant and regulated markets with rapidly changing market and regulatory forces holding down revenues while costs continue to increase. The industry has responded with efforts to streamline costs through attrition and reductions in force and efficiencies produced by the “Delivering the Nuclear Promise”® (DNP) initiative. There have been some results, but not enough to significantly resolve the issue. The loss of “knowledge workers” through streamlining operations now will become part of a larger, longer term trend in the next 5 to 10 years with the retirements of one third of the workforce comprised of the “Baby Boomer” generation of employees. This loss is coming at a time when the financial constraints on the industry and the demographics of the job market limit the availability of talent to a younger, less experienced, and much smaller pool of qualified professionals and skilled craft who would be severely challenged to maintain existing performance standards. Clearly, the industry has to come up with solutions that will be different than those of the past. The Millennial Workforce Is Not Your Grandfather’s Workforce Thetruthisthatthefutureworkforceof Millennials is quite unlike the generations that preceded it. The Baby Boomers, like generations before them, valued hard work, discipline, loyalty, processes and procedures, standardization, chain of command, compliance and precedent, all features highly valued by the nuclear industry. Boomers were far more likely to stay with one company for a longer 34 NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, July-August 2018