BUILDING RESILIENCE | SUPPLY CHAIN


Above: Securing trained people may represent a growing for the UAE’s nuclear power ambitions


regional variations at play, the recruitment and human capital development issue is significantly more widespread. This is currently a big issue in the UAE and Turkey, for example, as well as Saudi Arabia, which plans to start building soon.


“I think this is a general issue in most countries,


excluding China, Russia and also countries like India which are all special cases. But in regard to Western countries, the aging of staff at the operator end, as well as at the supplier end, creates a significant challenge. Entities are struggling with these capabilities due to aging and lack of young professionals entering the industry. Losing experienced workforce also means they are losing the capabilities needed to oversee the product that’s going to be produced, permitted, and then installed in the plant. One of the key issues is that 80% of the effort is documentation- related and companies need to understand how to do the technical documentation, the licensing and permitting- related documentation for equipment and components,” Kruse explains. He adds: It’s a linked process. You cannot isolate the operator side from the supplier side because the operator has an oversight responsibility. It also needs to their contribution to the supply chain, in regard to requirements management, configuration, documentation, licensing and quality assurance. This is a significant challenge in many countries right now, “not speaking about the challenges with certified craftsmen like welders and radiation protection labour”, Kruse adds. It’s clear that in order to overcome this issue requires


education programmes and also effective marketing to make the industry more attractive as an employment opportunity due to the energy transition. Developments like SMR and fusion do have an air of excitement that might go some way to making the nuclear sector more attractive to the young, brilliant engineers needed but there is stiff competition. “There is loss of people, especially the younger workforce from the oil and gas sector or the nuclear sector


into the renewable sector. It’s technicians but also the academic workforce working elsewhere and that creates workforce challenges,” Kruse says. Digital tooling to support management and training as


part of a knowledge transfer programme is emerging as part of the solution, but Kruse argues that it is not a complete answer. “People are pinning their hopes on digital tools that are emerging like building information modelling and configuration management tools which link into the requirements management. However, in the end there are always three dimensions that need to be considered in a supply chain. You have the human element, you have the technology element, and you have the organisation element. That cannot all be solved just by digital tools. Interfaces need to be managed, they need to be human and need to take decisions. Nuclear oversight needs to be done by someone and both the operator and the supplier need to have these capabilities. That will always require humans so they cannot be fully replaced,” he says. Nonetheless, digital tools can make some supply


chain issues easier, such as engineering of components, aging management of operating plants and exchanging g requirements between regulators, owners, and suppliers. “This is a big issue, ensuring the equipment is being manufactured and installed in a conformant way and doesn’t create any non-conformities, which lead to cost overruns and risk energy availability of the plant,” notes Kruse.


Developing a suitable regulatory regime Another related supply chain challenge is the licensing and regulatory processes that are in place. Kruse cites SMRs as an example: “One of the main barriers to SMR development is international standards determination with regard to licensing and product standardisation. SMRs require a standard supply chain, which leads to economies of scale and learning curve effects that will bring down U


When we talk about the supply chain, that means countries like China, Korea or the US have to a lesser extent challenges, while European countries like Switzerland, Sweden and even the UK, do have their challenges


www.neimagazine.com | April 2023 | 29


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