The future of nuclear power and the IBEW are interconnected, International Secretary-Treasurer Paul Noble said in March to thousands of the highest-ranking nuclear power regulators and executives.
Noble spoke during a special session of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s 50th anniversary annual meeting.
NRC Chairman David Wright moderated the panel, titled “The Next 50 Years.” Noble was joined by some of the most consequential people in the U.S. nuclear power industry — including one of the NRC’s most senior regulators and the leader of industry coalition the Nuclear Energy Institute.
Also on stage were the CEO of Terrapower, which hired IBEW members to build an advanced natrium reactor in Wyoming, and the CEO of Georgia Power, which just finished construction of Vogtle units 3 and 4, the first new large-scale nuclear reactors to come online in the U.S. in decades.
Noble made the case that the IBEW is and will be a reliable and necessary partner for nuclear developers, utilities and regulators.
“What we do better than anyone, our greatest attribute, is we create journey-level craftspeople. Training and safety, that’s what we do best,” he said.
Everyone on the stage expects an unprecedented spike in energy demand in the next half-decade. Nearly 3,000 delegates from almost 50 countries were there to hear how nuclear regulators and their partners could meet that need.
Any successful plan will have union labor at its heart, Noble said.
“The more we know in advance, the better we can deliver, the better we can mobilize,” he said. “We’re this vigilant because we’re trying to stay prepared for one reason. We want to partner with the industry, and we want to win the work.”
The goal is to work with industry partners and regulators to fast-track new generation projects and ensure that they understand the realities of the supply of qualified, productive electrical workers.
“We just had our national LAMPAC meeting last week, and one word that kept coming up over and over again was ‘partnership.’ It’s critical,” he said of the annual conference bringing together IBEW members and power company representatives. “We’re in constant communication with our utility industry partners, sharing information, developing strategies. This leads to them partnering with labor to ensure that their workforce is available.”
“Training and safety, that’s what we do best.”
– International Secretary-Treasurer Paul Noble
Noble said the best way to ensure the future workforce is to plan the expansion around existing fossil fuel power generation workers.
“The IBEW represents valuable workers from the fossil industry, and a lot of those are becoming displaced. There’s absolutely no reason to let those folks walk out of the energy industry,” Noble said.
The skilled worker shortage in the U.S. is so extreme that regulators, developers and utilities can no longer afford to just build a project and expect workers to come.
“The creation of site selection guidance and regulatory process for brownfield communities and the potential worker transition from coal to nuclear remains a high priority of ours,” he said.
Chris Levesque, CEO of Terrapower, — which is developing a first-of-its-kind natrium reactor in Kemmerer, Wyo. — picked up on Noble’s message.
“The IBEW operates the coal plant down the road from Kemmerer Unit 1, and we’re going to welcome the IBEW at our plant [when it opens] in 2030,” he said.
While new nuclear power generation is critical to meeting growing power demand, Noble emphasized what is possibly the IBEW’s most important contribution to the growth of nuclear power in America: members’ skill operating the existing fleet safely.
“Continuing to uphold the high operational standards of the current fleet is absolutely critical. Any declines in this industry’s performance will create hesitancy for further nuclear development the U.S.,” he said.
