Assuring nuclear safety competence into the 21. century a swedish perspective

Many initiatives have been taken and are being considered to maintain and develop competence in the nuclear field in Sweden. The number of qualified nuclear engineering staff at the plants and at the regulatory bodies appears to be rather small for all important tasks to be carried out. Nevertheless, the current programmes indicate that one can look at future recruitment and competence with some confidence-in spite of the age profile of qualified staff with many approaching retirement. The Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate, (SKI), the academic community, and the Industry are conducting several research projects that support the optimistic view expressed above. Examples include: Safety research at SKI and universities: Since many years, SKI is sponsoring research in safety analysis within the framework of its Research Programme. In this programme the regulator supports two professors, one in Nuclear Power Safety at KTH and the other in the Interaction of Man, Technology and Organisation at the University of Stockholm. Swedish Centre of Nuclear Technology: A main activity of the Centre is to support PhD candidates (with scientific advice and economy) in topics related to nuclear technology. The Industry also makes great efforts to support recruitment by various initiatives: Design reconstitution projects: Each one of the older operating plants was subject to a design review that engaged a large number of young staff at the utilities and the vendors. 'Young Generation': It constitutes a communication network among young engineers at European nuclear plants, regulators, and other organisations. (authors)