2018 has seen 5 hugely successful events organised as part of the YGN’s “Intro to…” series. Intro to events are 1-3 day seminars on nuclear topics such as waste management, typically with nuclear site visits and presentations from senior level management. They are designed to provide an overview for nuclear professionals new to that area.

July saw the first event of the year, “An Intro to Project Management”, kindly hosted by Atkins in Warrington. Delegates learnt about risk management and different contract types before spending the final hours of the day estimating, planning and building towers in an interactive workshop.

At “An intro to Project Management” Kayleigh Daniels, Business Development Manager at REACT Engineering during her talk on the concept of Outcomes Based Contracting

Event organiser James O’Keeffe said, “We achieved something great with the Intro to Project Management. It was the first event of its kind and I am really pleased with the amazing feedback we received and looking forward to this being developed in 2019. The delegates received an interesting insight into the complexities of project management and learnt how best to tackle the many issues which regularly present themselves on projects across the industry”.

The “Introduction to Nuclear New Build” seminar held in July delved into the complex environment surrounding the country’s nuclear new build (NNB) projects. Delegates were educated on everything from nuclear and environmental regulation, the Generic Design Assessment and Design Consent Orders, as well as current new build projects being developed across the country. All of this was topped off with a site visit to Hinkley Point C!

Delegates learnt about new technologies such as Moltex Energy’s Stable Salt Reactor and the U-battery. Speakers also discussed the role and impact of innovation and public perception on NNBs.

At “Intro to Nuclear New Build” Adrian Bull MBE, Director of External Relations at NNL ran a brilliant session on public perception of nuclear new build.

September saw the “Intro to Power Generation” event, sponsored and hosted by EDF Energy. Over the course of three days, delegates were given an insight into the various technologies employed across the power generation sector, the importance of planning for decommissioning and had site visits to Hinkley and JET (see below).

At the “Intro to Power Generation” delegates visited a PWR Simulator

In October, the YGN held its “Intro to Nuclear Regulation” seminar, hosted by the Office for Nuclear Regulation at their offices in Bootle. In addition to speakers from the ONR, attendees also heard from the Environment Agency on their regulatory role and from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

60 young professionals from across the sector attending the two days; over 20 organisations were represented and included nuclear site license companies, supply chain and technical consultants.

Over the course of the two days, the attendees heard presentations on security, safeguards and advanced nuclear technologies. Attendees also had the chance to take part in an emergency response exercise in ONR’s Incident Suite.

Jess Taylor, who was part of the team organising the event said: “It was great to see the event so well attended; we wanted to try and give delegates a real flavour over the two days about what we do here at ONR, and hopefully we managed to achieve that.”

“An Introduction to Nuclear Regulation” was the biggest Intro to Seminar of 2018 with 60 delegates

October was a busy month for the YGN, with the “Intro to Waste Management & Decommissioning,” sponsored by Sellafield, also being held.

Attendees learnt the principles of waste management, and future challenges in this area as well as gaining an understanding of Sellafield’s strategy in this area.

 Sellafield’s Legacy Ponds at the “Intro to Waste Management and Decommissioning”

Further talks included the “Characterisation of Nuclear Waste”, “Tackling Decommissioning Challenges at Dounreay” and “The Role of the NDA in Nuclear WM&D”.

Sellafield’s Howard Carpenter Programme Manager talking through some of the key Decommissioning activities happening in Cumbria at the “Introduction to Waste Management and Decommissioning”

5 Intro to Events are currently being organised for 2019. To register you interest and be the first to hear when tickets are available email us at ygnintroto@gmail.com