Nuclear Industry ‘Needs To Improve Its Communications’
Written by NucNet
Monday, 31 May 2010
The nuclear energy industry needs to improve the quality of its communications if it is to gain the full support of the public, a conference heard today.
Andrea Brentan, chief executive officer of Spanish utility Endesa, told the European Nuclear Conference (ENC) in Barcelona, that one of the problems facing the industry in Spain is that the debate is not “thorough enough”. He said many people do not yet have “a definitive opinion” on nuclear energy and the industry must be transparent about the risks.
He pointed out that the industry has now gathered 13,000 years of reactor operating experience and the lessons learned from this experience must be more widely disseminated from trade unions to students.
Another potential problem for the industry is the lack of a new generation of skilled workers. He said almost all the universities in Spain “seem to have forgotten about nuclear engineering”.
Endesa is the largest owner of nuclear capacity in Spain with involvement in seven out of eight of the country’s commercially operational nuclear units.
The company is a subsidiary of Italy’s Enel, which is aiming to build new nuclear units in Italy and recently signed an agreement to cooperate in future nuclear projects in Russia including the possible construction of a nuclear power plant in Kaliningrad.
José Gutierrez, ENC 2010 conference chair, told the opening session this morning that “a new paradigm” of environmental protection is driving big changes for the energy sector and the nuclear industry. But he added there is a clear need for new human resources.
“In the middle of this global economic crisis the nuclear energy industry is creating jobs, he said.
ENC 2010, organised by the European Nuclear Society in cooperation with the Spanish Nuclear Society, is being held in Barcelona from 31 May-2 June.
