New Decommissioning Skills Centre
May 2007
A redundant cheese-making facility at Bridgwater College’s Cannington Centre has been converted into a training complex for the nuclear decommissioning industry. The Decommissioning Skills Centre was officially opened by local MP, Ian Liddell-Grainger, who said it was an excellent example of industry and education working together.
Local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger cuts the ribbon ,
(from left to right): Fiona McMillan (Bridgwater College Principal);
Ken Powers (Managing Director of Magnox South)
and Mark Morant (Managing Director of Reactor Sites).
Reactor Sites, the management and operations contractor that runs the Magnox South sites of Hinkley Point A, Berkeley, Bradwell, Dungeness A and Sizewell A on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, teamed up with Bridgwater College to finance refurbishment of the facility, which had remained unused for a number of years.
The new classrooms are already being used to train workers from a number of sites. The training is designed to re-skill employees from the company’s southern region sites away from power generation operations, as all of the five southern site’s employees enter the de-planting and decommissioning era.
The courses run in the Centre include both classroom and ‘mock-up’ training where employees can practice deconstruction skills and demonstrate their proficiency during differing simulated radiological conditions and simulated hazardous environments.
The start of the re-skilling programme is a tangible result of the partnership between the company and Bridgwater College. The College has now been named as the South West hub for the industry’s National Skills Academy and is set to play a key role in the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s strategy for delivering a skilled workforce.
Last year Bridgwater College Principal Fiona McMillan and senior members of her staff joined the company and other key local stakeholders, including MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, on a fact finding mission to America where strong links were forged with education establishments involved in nuclear decommissioning training.
Programme tutors at the Cannington facility are qualified “worker trainers” who possess years of on-the-job experience, and are experienced tutors sanctioned by Bridgwater College. Because of this unique partnership, students in the programme have the option of advancing their portfolios by eventually qualifying for a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) in Nuclear Decommissioning.
Ken Powers, Managing Director of the five Magnox South sites, said: “Re-skilling of our existing workforce is a crucial factor in safely decommissioning nuclear facilities. The fact we have managed to get this training up and running in such a short timescale is a testament to the hard work that has been put in to the project and the partnership working with Bridgwater College and support from other colleges in the south east.”
Fiona McMillan, said: “We are very pleased to be working with such a major employer on a decommissioning project which not only meets its training needs but also has a positive environmental impact. The opening of the Decommissioning Skills Centre at Cannington provides an interim location until we have a purpose-built facility and is an excellent example of innovative ways in which the industry and College staff have worked together.”
