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North and South Carolina are among nine states targeting low-income, young adults ages 16 to 26 for potential employment in skilled technician positions in the energy industry. As Duke Energy’s Nelson Peeler told the Charleston (S.C.) Business Review, the utilities represented by the Carolinas Energy Workforce Consortium will provide jobs to at least 80 of the students who complete the line worker and power plant operator training programs over the next two years. “This gives us a pipeline of talented, skilled workers for the future,” Peeler said. Member companies of the consortium include Duke Energy Progress, Pike Electric Corp., Areva Inc., Utility Lines Inc., The Shaw Group and North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives. E-learning company Microburst has partnered with EngenuitySC and SCANA Corp. to produce a 20-minute, interactive job shadowing experience focusing on nuclear operators, radiation protection
technicians and nuclear engineers. The program is offered at Midlands Technical College in Columbia, S.C. The e-lesson enables students to experience what typical job tasks are required, what education and training are needed, what work hours and compensation levels they can expect. “We anticipate a need for 800 to 1,000 new employees as our new AP1000 reactors come online (at V.C. Summer) in 2017 and 2018,” said Scott McFarland, manager of SCANA’s Corporate Workforce Planning division, in an EngenuitySC blog entry. The workforce development efforts of the last decade are bearing fruit. Enrollment in undergraduate nuclear engineering programs has increased from 470 students in the 1999-2000 academic year to more than 1,300 at the end of 2008, the last year for which figures are available. During the same period, graduate enrollment has climbed from 220 students to more than 1,225.
And if the size and influence of one industry professional association are any indication, the future of nuclear power is in good hands. Membership in the Carolinas regional section of North American-Young Generation in Nuclear — an offshoot of the Nuclear Energy Institute for professionals 35 and younger — is at 300 and growing, with 8,000 total members in North America. In August, hundreds of NA-YGN members converged on Charlotte for a six-day conference of the group’s sister organization, the International Youth Nuclear Congress, which is made up of young nuclear industry workers in 40 countries. The event attracted more than 600 attendees. One conference organizer, Maggie Collins of the Shaw Group corporate chapter of NA-YGN, found it exhilarating to be around so many professionals from so many places. “The general public doesn’t understand it, but this is science. I want to help change that,” Collins said. u
BUILDING A LOW-CARBON FUTURE – TODAY. At Duke Energy, sustainability is about making decisions and taking actions that are good for today – and better for tomorrow. For more than 40 years, we’ve generated safe, reliable and clean nuclear energy for our region. Our work sustains thousands of jobs – and continues to power the Carolinas’ economy. Find out more at nuclear.duke-energy.com.
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