Yorkshire MP calls for ‘laser sharp’ focus on getting young people into nuclear energy sector

Speaking at The Nuclear Manufacturing Summit 2023, hosted by Nuclear AMRC in Rotherham, Ms Champion said: “These are high quality, high value jobs that offer long-term career opportunities to people of all backgrounds, but despite this, the industry faces a huge challenge in attracting and recruiting enough people.

“What we now need is a laser sharp focus on delivering solutions. We need solutions which support the nuclear industry and create the opportunity for people across the county to get into valuable and rewarding careers.”

Discussing advances in nuclear manufacturing in recent years, including with Small Modular Reactors, Ms Champion said the industry now held “great opportunities” for the South Yorkshire region.

Her comments come after last year, former Government minister and Sheffield MP Richard Caborn wrote to the Government on behalf of the Sheffield Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Consortium, discussing its plan for South Yorkshire to become a national centre of excellence for supplying the UK’s nuclear technology industry.

The comments also follow Sheffield Forgemasters announcing last week that it had entered a memorandum of understanding with Cavendish Nuclear and US firm X-energy to work on plans to deploy 40 Advanced Modular Reactors across the UK.

Ms Champion noted her belief that perception towards jobs or apprenticeships in the manufacturing sector had historically made it difficult to attract people, describing this as a “fundamental problem”.

She added: “We still need to bring around the parents and the teachers who don't see apprenticeships as the way forward, and that is proving to be a big problem.

“We need to be doing much more as a country to attract young people into these high skilled jobs.”

Ms Champion cited the Nuclear Skills Academy in Derby as a “great example” of how businesses, industry, local and Government can come together to help solve the issue, but added: “We need to be motivating the parents and the teachers to enable the young people to take advantage of these opportunities.”

Elsewhere at the summit, the issue of diversity and inclusion within the nuclear sector was raised. Rachael Glaving, commercial director at EDF, said there was still a “huge amount more” to do in terms of achieving gender diversity in the sector.

She added: “We need to start really ramping up the effort to get more diversity in all regards into our sector.

“If we are to reach our target numbers in employment, we absolutely need to tap into every possible pool of capability.”

In August, the Government launched a Nuclear Skills Taskforce, in order to try and “turbo charge” skills activity in the nuclear sector. The taskforce aims to address how the UK continues to build nuclear skills across both the defence and civil workforce.

Speaking in a pre-recorded address to the summit, Andrew Bowie, Minister for Nuclear and Networks, said: “It is a hugely exciting time for the nuclear industry here in the United Kingdom.”