Participants, made up of local government officials, state legislators, economic developers, and representatives from institutions of higher education and private industry, met not only to discuss development of the local nuclear workforce, but to discuss the future of new nuclear and what it means for Idaho Falls
and the greater region. This Workforce Roundtable was a part of the ECA-EFCOG-DOE-EM Workforce Initiative and it was moderated by Rebecca Casper, Mayor of Idaho Falls and ECA Vice-Chair.
Kristen Ellis,
EM-4, kicked off the meeting by providing some remarks. She commented that the purpose of the ECA-EFCOG-DOE Workforce initiative is to consider what the future economic development of EM communities should look like, especially with regard to new nuclear. Ellis commented that DOE wants to empower contractors and review their needs by contract – what needs does the community provide, and what needs can DOE provide? Previous workforce meetings have encouraged cooperation between
Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) and communities on how to address childcare needs, engage institutions of education and connect them with private industry, create a trades pipeline, and build out and update local infrastructure.
Seth Kirshenberg, ECA Executive Director, followed by commenting on how there is a need to educate people entering that as even some governments sectors shrink, others will grow, such as the Naval Reactors Program and the
Environmental Management Program. On the private industry side, he emphasized that local communities and local workforces are the launchpad for nuclear developers. Idaho Falls and the greater area is a community that is poised to train the future new nuclear and cleanup workforces for the country and the world.
A major theme of the roundtable was an emphasis on the importance of cooperation and coordination. The College of Eastern Idaho and Idaho National Laboratory cooperate closely, and with a host of other partners. On the CEI side, CEI and INL coordinate to train students in
skill areas that will be useful at the Lab, and the lab provides staff necessary to facilitate training sessions for students to learn these skills. Training sessions cover manufacturing, cybersecurity and information technology, welding and fabrication, industrial safety and OSHA, nuclear energy support, and more. On the INL side, the lab produces transparent workforce and estimate cost projections to inform CEI about what skills and positions will be in demand. Both entities also collaborate
with the Idaho Advanced Energy Consortium (IAEC) and U.S. Economic Development Association for grant and funding support, Idaho State University and Western Wyoming Community College to build-out the higher education pipeline, and the Intermountain-West Nuclear Energy Corridor and Nuclear Innovation Engine to incorporate with the region as a whole and identify how communities in the region can specialize and contribute to new nuclear development.
The focus on cooperation
extends to private industry as well. For example, Amentum leads the Idaho Environmental Coalition and is a member of the Battelle Energy Alliance,
alongside BWX Technologies Inc, the Electric Power Research Institute, and several University partners, who manage INL for DOE. Amentum works in tandem with all
of these partners to support national nuclear, defense, and cyber missions.
Meeting attendees agreed that growing the workforce with the growing ambitions of the cleanup mission and new nuclear development will be necessary to secure the region's future economic growth. INL for example, is expanding its mission scope and address significant infrastructure needs, and it will need an expanding workforce to complement
that scope and those needs. Many of these new jobs will be drawn from the trades and union jobs. In addition, small modular reactors (SMRs) will no doubt play a role in Idaho Fall’s and INL’s future growth, and a workforce with sufficient trades skills will be necessary to support SMR deployment and upkeep.
Attendees also discussed challenges to attracting and retaining the next generation workforce workforce –
including challenges related to transportation and site remoteness, stigma that the sites are unreliable employment options, skills training in higher education, and the effectiveness of the K-12 curriculum in exciting students for nuclear opportunities. Communities should evaluate short-term and long-term growth, who they need to employ in both those periods, and what skills needs will be required in both those periods. Communities should also consider both how to retain the local workforce and
attract an outside workforce as key to growth.
Participants agreed that training the next generation of the nuclear workforce will require revitalizing training programs and placing a special focus on such programs. Training is a crucial form of investment and risk reduction. Furthermore, continuing support to the EM Cleanup mission and the cleanup workforce will be key, as the cleanup workforce is trained in transferable
skills that can be applied at INL. Participants also discussed how public K-12 education be retooled and reinvented to reflect modern technological innovations, community priorities, and workforce needs in Idaho. This includes considering how to remove traditional barriers to higher education, such as via scholarships or by addressing transportation limitations. Solutions discussed include apprenticeships programs for Senior high school students, and engaging communities in public education
curriculum. Another topic participants discussed how to promote employment on site and in the community. How can people be convinced that the site is open to employment, and that employment is secure? Focusing on the legacy of the site, and the unique story that Idaho Falls has, including its legacy as a site and the current level of cooperation to promote new nuclear development is key to attracting employment, as is highlighting contracting partners and the employment opportunities available
on site and in the community. Modern websites and social media can be valuable forms of telling these stories and communicating this information, both internally and externally.
Hosted as a collaboration between the Department of Energy
(DOE), Energy Facilities Contractor Group (EFCOG) and Energy Communities Alliance (ECA), The ECA-EFCOG-DOE-EM Workforce Initiative grew from a conversations between EM and ECA, beginning by discussing general issues and turned into a long, focused discussion on how best to assess and address workforce issues at every DOE site.
The Workforce Initiative
has led to several meetings at EM sites across the country, including the Hanford Site, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, the Savannah River Site, and most recently, Idaho Falls. These sessions have been attended by elected officials, DOE-HQ, DOE leadership at the site, DOE contractor leadership at
the site, Tribal leaders, Chambers of Commerce, unions, educators, economic development professionals, homebuilder associations, and others invested in the long-term health of the community, State and region supporting DOE-EM’s mission. ECA looks forward to future meetings to expand the scope of the Initiative.
Nuclear 101 & 201
