Developing the New Nuclear Workforce

In an increasingly integrated global economy where trade within and between international corporations crosses multiple regulatory regimes, developing and implementing standardized nuclear safeguards policies within a multinational corporation is a significant challenge. How might the successful navigation of this challenge inform cooperation among trading partners across corporate, state, and international organizational boundaries and regulatory regimes? Westinghouse Electric Company’s (WEC) has created a Global Nuclear Safeguards organization to develop and execute such corporate-wide policy and program across its fleet of fuel fabrication facilities. From establishing and staffing the Global Nuclear Safeguards organization, assessing the capabilities of individual safeguards organizations at each facility, and taking steps to ensure appropriate staffing and qualification of staff at the facilities, the program has identified strengths and weaknesses at the facilities and has initiated efforts to increase communication and collaboration between the sites. The ultimate goal of the program is to identify best practices within the company; implement consistent practices between facilities, as practical; and establish a core of experts whose knowledge and skills can be used to support all WEC fuel fabrication facilities. This paper provides an overview of the first iteration of this WEC program, the organization’s initial challenges and successes, its impact on WEC facilities, and a discussion how this creation of this program has served as a catalyst in the global nuclear industry to share ideas and collaborate to identify best practices or innovative approaches among commercial, state and regional regulators, and international organizations.