Funded by the EU and the CEA and led by INSTN, the Eurotalents programme has financed the mobility of over 200 researchers.

One of INSTN's missions is to recruit, administer and coordinate all CEA doctoral and post-doctoral researchers. As part of this mission, between January 2014 and December 2018 our Institute led a European programme called Enhanced Eurotalents, which encourages and supports the mobility of researchers, and is co-funded by the CEA and the European Commission under the Marie Curie Actions of the FP7. These exchanges were mainly in 4 key scientific fields: ‘energy, the environment and climate change’, ‘key enabling technologies’, ‘high energy physics and physics of the universe’, and ‘life sciences and biotechnology’.

By the end of the programme, which has just ended, we are pleased with INSTN’s results for the 5-year period: 11 selection sessions, which resulted in funding for the recruitment of 189 foreign post-doctoral researchers by the CEA, and exchange positions in international laboratories for 30 CEA researchers.

Even though co-financing by the European Union ended on the 31^st of December 2018, several of these exchanges are still ongoing and now fully funded by the CEA. Following on from Enhanced Eurotalents, a new European doctoral researcher mobility programme has just started, this time in simulation and digital technologies: Numerics.

 

France currently has 58 pressurised water reactors, whose operation and maintenance require a wide range of professionals. There is currently a recruitment drive in the sector as a result of retirements. INSTN has designed a four-part training course for newcomers to the world of PWRs.

The first module ‘Lifecycle of a PWR’ provides an overview of the normal operation of a PWR and the main stages of start-up after fuel loading. It is a requirement for taking the other 3 modules, which are:

• ‘Systems and Components’, covering reactor architecture
• ‘Operating Reactor Cores’, providing an overview of managing pressurised water reactor cores according to the technical, economic and safety constraints
• ‘Deteriorating Conditions’, covering PWR protection and safety systems and the main design basis accidents

From technician to neutron physics engineer, trainees will gain additional competences for their career development from each specific module, and taking all of the modules will provide them with a broad understanding of the subject.

Designed to include sessions from CEA, EDF and Framatome experts, these training modules include practical work on simulators and practical case studies.

 

Upcoming sessions (in French):

• Lifecycle of a PWR: 2-4 April2019

• Systems and Components: 4-6 juin 2019

• Operating Reactor Cores: 17-19 septembre 2019

• Deteriorating Conditions: 3-5 décembre 2019

 

With the announcement of the Hydrogen Roadmap, the French Government has highlighted the full potential of this molecule. Working in this sector for over 20 years, Liten, a CEA Tech Institute, is a key player with significant expertise in the areas of application such as mobility, construction, etc.

Designed in collaboration with CEA-Liten teams, INSTN offers training tailored to the needs of our industrial clients, throughout the value chain: from hydrogen production (electrolysers), through storage up to use (fuel cell), as part of an integrated energy system. Security management is a key consideration throughout the entire value chain.

Technical visits to CEA facilities during the training sessions help to improve understanding of these technologies and the associated constraints.

 

Pile à combustible 

Filière hydrogène

 

 

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)

Medical Physicists are trained, on the Doseo Platform, to optimise the management of radiotherapy treatments

Unique in Europe, Doseo, CEA's radiotherapy and medical imaging technologies platform in Saclay (Paris area), is also used for training purposes, with training programmes run by INSTN. The forty Medical Physicists trained last year were able to make use of the 1000m² technological platform and to exchange face-to-face with the CEA’s leading experts in the field. "Part of the research carried out at Doseo aims to optimise new radiotherapy technologies while controlling risks," explains Amélie Roué, INSTN Nuclear Applications for Health Programme Manager. "Medical Physicists are among the first people who can make use of and focus on optimisation of these technologies. With the platform, they can quickly acquire the most up-to-date knowledge and put it into practice when they return to their hospitals."

Training programmes last one to two days, and are in line with professional practices. Our catalogue has built on the three courses offered in 2018, and now includes seven courses in 2019, with expansion set to continue in the coming years. Students in initial training of the DQPRM (Radiological and Medical Physics Diploma) also benefit from the advanced equipment located close to our Institute’s premises in the Paris region.

Nuclear applications for health will continue expanding in the coming years because the subject is at the heart of key societal issues. "Radiation therapy, which is increasingly personalised and targeted, is an integral part of this medicine of the future, which is being developed in order to provide better patient care," explains Amélie Roué. Combining training and research at Doseo makes perfect sense.

 

INSTN training programmes on Doseo

 

At the request of the Space Industry, INSTN has designed a new training course on the impact of cosmic radiation on embedded electronics in space. A success that will be renewed.

Improving the behaviour of systems exposed to radiation is a key challenge for space projects. "For our client," says Louis-Joseph Bonnaud, who developed this new training course, "it was about training non-specialist engineers. As a result we chose a step-by-step approach, which first covers the basics of ionising radiation in the space environment, moving onto the interaction of radiation with electronics. Finally, we present methods for protecting equipment from radiation by shielding and mitigation."

To develop and deliver this training course, INSTN worked with the CEA's research engineers, in particular from IRFU (Institute of Research into the Fundamental Laws of the Universe), an Institute which has been designing and building research equipment (camera, spectrometer, etc.) embedded into space systems, for several decades.

The training took place in December and was a great success, prompting INSTN to reprogramme this two-day course next November. Going beyond the space industry, it meets the needs of all manufacturers of equipment to spatialise.

Managing Director of the Nuvia Group, President of the INSTN Foundation since the 9th of January, Bruno Lancia gives his vision of the INSTN Foundation. Two concepts stand out: competences and attractiveness.

What inspires you in your new role as President of the INSTN Foundation?

B.L.: It is with great pleasure that I have become President of the INSTN Foundation. When the Director of INSTN came to see me in 2016 with this project, I immediately took to the idea. For me, it's a question of responsibility. If we do not mobilise young people, if we do not maintain our competences at the highest level, we will have more and more difficulties in developing our sector. So, I intend to continue the work that has already been started towards this.

What are the key objectives?

B.L.: The INSTN Foundation focuses its projects and funding on four areas: contributing to the creation of teaching funds, helping to improve student life conditions for those enrolled on INSTN courses, financing the development of educational tools and facilities, and participating in transferring knowledge on energy issues to students and professionals, as well as to the wider public. It is vital that education and training in the nuclear field be innovative and adapted to the digital environment in which young people are immersed, and that competences be maintained at the highest levels. This is INSTN’s role, and the Foundation is there to support it in this process.

Do you have new goals for the INSTN Foundation?

B.L.: Set up by INSTN and three industrial partners (Nuvia, Apave, Assystem), the Foundation has been up and running for more than two years now. It is time to integrate other partners, in order to provide more funding and allow us to expand our goals. Furthermore, the more there are of us, the more our message will spread, and that is the overall goal.

In addition to the missions that we have, another aspect that is important to me is to support the attractiveness of our training for foreign students. It is by spreading French culture, the French nuclear approach and model, that we will contribute to the deployment of nuclear technologies internationally. Once again, it is the future of the nuclear industry that is at stake.

On the 7th and 8th November, a second Franco-British Seminar on innovative approaches to nuclear skills was held in London. Around 50 individuals from the nuclear industry, research, education, government and from a number of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) gathered at the French Residence to discuss and explore the previously identified, key themes crucial to the success of the Franco-British Nuclear Sector.

Organized by France’s National Institute for nuclear sciences and technology (INSTN) and the UK’s Nuclear Skills Strategy Group (NSSG), the two-day Seminar was opened by the French Ambassador Jean-Pierre Jouyet and closed by Stephen Speed, Director of the Nuclear Directorate at the Department for Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Both renewed the support of their countries to nuclear energy as part of their respective journeys towards a low carbon economy.

Stephen Speed, Director of the Nuclear Directorate at the Department for Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) closed the seminar.

 

 

In France and the United Kingdom, the nuclear sector is facing a series of considerable challenges which will require the expansion of a skilled workforce. The UK is undergoing a nuclear renaissance which sees developers planning to bring forward a number of major new build projects , while over in France, the sector is undertaking the progressive replacement of the reactor fleet.

Skills have already been identified as a pressing priority for both countries, and joint approaches were tabled during the last Franco-British Ministerial Summit in January 2018, chaired by Richard Harrington MP (Minister for Business and Industry at BEIS) and Brune Poirson (Minister at the Secretary of State for Ecological and Solidarity-based Transition).

Following the first Seminar in May, last week’s high profile seminar addressed a number of priority themes linked to innovation, subject matter expertise, career pathways and vocational training, sector jumpers, diversity and the attractiveness of STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and of the nuclear sector towards young people.

This latest Franco-British Seminar on Skills illustrates the deep links France and the United Kingdom share in the nuclear sector, with the industry on both sides of the Channel set to play an important role in meeting climate change commitments.

The output of the Seminar was a number of clear objectives, which were agreed via joint Working Groups, together with roadmaps to reach them.   

The next Seminar, which will take place in Normandy, in May next year, will focus on progress and share the results of this important work, results that are essential to the competitiveness and further development of the nuclear sector in both countries.

 

On october the 22th, INSTN and Kedge Buisness school signed a collaboration agreement. The objective is to capitalize on their complementarity to develop the employability of their respective students

Based on clear synergies between our two institutions, INSTN and Kedge Business School signed a collaboration agreement to develop the employability of our respective students, apprentices and trainees. Kedge Business School offers excellence in the field of social and economic competences, while INSTN provides scientific and technological excellence. In the medium-term, this collaboration could also lead to joint international development projects, as well as in the field of complex project management.

INSTN and Senegal’s Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, with IAEA support, signed a partnership agreement for a project to set up a Centre of Excellence for Nuclear Science and Technology.

At the IAEA General Conference held in Vienna from the 17^th to the 21^st of September, INSTN and Senegal’s Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, with IAEA support, signed a partnership agreement for a project to set up a Centre of Excellence for Nuclear Science and Technology. As such, INSTN will assist Senegal in the development of teaching in the field of nuclear power reactors and nuclear applications in human health. The agreement also covers the creation of a distance learning platform, the training of Senegalese experts and students in nuclear science and technology, as well as knowledge transfer, in accordance with IAEA regulations. The agreement will also allow the CEA and TechnicAtome to further develop their relations with Senegal, whose influence in Africa is growing.