Strategy for Competence Building and the Development of Future Talent for Nuclear Safety

The now completed phase-out of the use of nuclear energy for the commercial generation of electricity, the reorganisation of responsibilities in nuclear waste management and the further development of radiation protection have led to significant changes in Germany in recent years.

It was against this backdrop that the federal ministries, under the lead responsibility of the then Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), developed a Strategy for Competence Building and the Development of Future Talent for Nuclear Safety. The strategy took into account the future needs of relevant stakeholders (federal and state licensing and supervisory authorities, technical support organisations, advisory bodies, operators, research institutes, higher education institutions, industry). The strategy was adopted by the German cabinet (Merkel IV) on 26 August 2020, outlining a framework for concrete action. It identifies specific catalogues of measures covering the fields of education and teaching, advanced and continuing training, research and development, knowledge retention, committee work and networks, international networking and cross-border activities, career prospects and recognition in society. It has since served as the basis for implementation across the various areas of government.

The government’s Strategy for Competence Building and the Development of Future Talent for Nuclear Safety has set an overall framework. Now it is up to the competent ministries to flesh out this framework across their respective portfolios. The strategy was anchored to specialist needs analyses which the federal ministries carried out within the scope of their responsibilities. In order to identify its needs and those of its executive agencies, for the period from 15 May 2019 to 14 May 2020, the BMU set up the project team “Retaining expertise and staff in the area of nuclear safety and radiation protection in the long term”.

The project team was staffed by experts from the BMU, its subordinate agencies BASE and BfS, as well as the federally owned companies BGE and BGZ. As a result of its work, the project team produced a set of specialist needs analyses and recommendations for action for a number of areas including safety of nuclear installations, radiation protection, and safety of nuclear waste management, most of which also fed into the framework strategy of the Federal Government. When drawing up these needs analyses, the Federal Environment Ministry pursued an integrated approach for its portfolio and also engaged with state authorities, independent expert organisations, BMU advisory bodies, operators and institutes of advanced training.