From operator to project manager, CEA decommissioning expertise is exported to industry

CEA Research and Development covers the field of nuclear cleanup, decommissioning and waste management. The CEA’s Marcoule Centre in the Gard Department of France conducts much of this research in a dozen facilities currently undergoing cleanup and decommissioning. These projects on research or demonstration facilities require expertise in management of complex projects, development of new digital technologies and their applications, or technical adaptations specific to decommissioning, such as site ventilation or asbestos removal, etc.

This expertise involves practices, from operator to engineer, that are of interest to industry, in particular decommissioning companies and nuclear facilities with decommissioning sites, including the CEA itself. ‘Time scales, the complexity of the projects, and costs of site decommissioning are not part of the project management carried out by a typical engineer’, says Isabelle Ribet, Head of INSTN’s Marcoule Training Centre, ‘hence the need to train project officers and managers, in areas of cost estimation, risk analysis and control, and complex project management specific to decommissioning.’

INSTN offers more than 25 professional training courses on the topics of cleanup, decommissioning and waste management, in French or English. They are provided at four of our Training Centres: Cadarache, Marcoule, Saclay and Cherbourg, with sessions from key CEA experts in the field. ‘In order to meet the needs of industrialists, we continue to design new training courses on the subject every year,’ adds Isabelle Ribet. In addition to these, INSTN is involved in a variety of degrees(1), supporting the transfer of these competences to new graduates and promoting their employability.

Upcoming sessions

(1) Degree courses (in French, unless stated ‘in English’):

• Vocational Bachelor’s Degree in Decommissioning, Waste and Remediation Management (L3D) (University of Nîmes)
• Vocational Bachelor’s Degree in Cleanup, Waste Management and Decommissioning in Nuclear Environment (AGEDDEN) (University of Caen Basse Normandie)
• Nuclear Engineering Degree for Specialised Engineers
• Engineering Degree in Nuclear Facilities (Mines Saint-Etienne)
• Engineering Degree in Nuclear Science and Technology (STN) (CNAM)
• Master’s Degree in Process Engineering (University of d’Aix Marseille)
• Master Nuclear Reactor Physics & Engineering (NRPE) (University of Paris Saclay, ENSTA ParisTech, CentraleSupélec, INSTN, Ecole Polytechnique, Arts et Métiers ParisTech, Chimie ParisTech, Mines ParisTech, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech) (in English)
• Master’s Degree Major in Cleanup and Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities (ADIN) (Université Grenoble Alpes)
• Master’s Degree in Scientific and Technological Management of Radioactive Waste (GEDERA) (Université Grenoble Alpes)
• Master’s Degree in Nuclear Cleanup and Management of Industrial Sites (University of Montpellier)