COVER STORY | BELGIUM’S NUCLEAR PIVOT
Engie’s newest nuclear imperative
When Belgium decided in March to reverse a decision to close all its nuclear reactors, it forced Engie’s human resources department to reopen a major programme to refocus its staff on decommissioning. This summer is a key period in preparing the team
IN 2003 THE BELGIAN GOVERNMENT decided to close its seven nuclear reactors by 2025. Since 2020 Engie, which part-owns the reactors and operates them as Electrabel, has been planning the progressive closure and decommissioning of seven reactors. It was no small task, but Doel 3 and Tihange 2 both closed on schedule. At that time the remaining units, Doel 1 and 2 and
Janet Wood
Expert author on energy issues
Tihange 1 (which had their operating licences extended in 2015) along with Doel 4 and Tihange 3, were all due to close down by 2025. That changed when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices higher and higher. The government decided that it needed nuclear and in June this year it reached an agreement with Engie to restart Doel 4 and Tihange 3 in 2025, to operate for a ten-year period. For Belgium the agreement provided some security of electricity supply until the mid 2030s. For the Belgian nuclear industry it was an important change that may give it credentials to raise the possibility of new-build. But for Engie – and particularly its human resources department – it was an about-turn that requires a change to years-long strategic planning, by which the company has been preparing itself to focus on shutdowns and decommissioning. Gregory Casale, Chief Human Resources Officer, and Patrick Claes, Strategic Workforce Project Manager, have that responsibility at Engie Group’s BU
Nuclear unit and they are planning, unexpectedly, for a summer of replanning, recruitment and consultation at the councils where the company works with unions. They say that “for Belgium, decommissioning is first of a kind – we have never taken on such a huge decommissioning plan”. They needed to learn a new process – but “now it is different and all our previous planning has to be revised”.
Nuclear staff management In Engie’s BU Nuclear unit the Human Resources (HR) function is organised around three pillars. First, strategic workforce planning considers the workforce needed in the future, and makes sure that need is met. Second, it is concerned with employability, and the career path the company can offer. Finally, there is social acceptance, because in Belgium the unions are always integrated into decision processes. Casale says that in practice, “we will start always with the strategy and we try to sell our strategy to the unions”. The first priority of the HR department, as always, is
nuclear safety, “because it is in our DNA”. The company now has two units in shutdown, three more that will be closed over the next few years and two that will have life extensions. The department has to consider business continuity, the post-operation phase and dismantling, while for the restarting units there is, “an enormous and an
Above: Doel Unit 3, near Antwerp, closed on schedule, as did Tihange 2 26 | August 2023 |
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