Nuclear Help Wanted.(Business)(plan for more nuclear power plants)

Byline: William Underhill; With Jesse Ellison and Joanna Chen

Plans for new plants have created a steep demand for engineering talent, but the students have fled.

Israel is usually reticent about its nuclear-power plant near Dimona. Why, then, was Israelas Atomic Energy Commission showing footage of the facility at a recent job fair at Ben-Gurion University? At a time when Israel is cutting back on higher education, the demand for nuclear engineers abroad has soared, leading to a brain drain. Even the prestigious Weizmann Institute has lost physicists for jobs abroad. In Olkiluoto, a tiny peninsula off the Finnish coast, 2,600 workers hailing from 20 different countries are struggling to complete the first new nuclear-power station to be built in Western Europe in 20 years. The project is two years behind schedule, and manpower is part of the problem. Only one third of the current work force is Finnish.

The industryas boosters (and many environmentalists) talk boldly of a anuclear renaissance,a driven by growing demand for energy and concern over emissions. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, 60 new reactors could be on line in the next 15 years, many in countries that had once forsaken nuclear energy as an option. The British government last week announced plans for a new generation of reactors, the first in more than 10 years. In the United States, 20 new plants have been proposed. France last month began work on a new reactor; Ukraineasite of the 1986 Chernobyl disasteraplans to build 11 more by 2030. As the industry slowly returns to favor, itas grappling with a shortage of engineers and other highly trained staff needed to certify and build new plants, to operate existing ones and to shut down antiquated models safely. aUnless action is taken, this [shortfall] could be a real threat to countries wanting to invest in new plants,a says Luis EchA varri, director-general of the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.

The cause is no mystery. After accidents at Americaas Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, governments and the public had little enthusiasm for investing in a nuclear future. Students turned to more promising fields. aWhy on earth would anyone have gone into an ...