The availability of qualified engineers is the biggest challenge facing the mainland's ambitious programme to expand the number of nuclear power plants, rather than issues of safety, uranium supply, or public opposition, according to industry experts.
Building the plants is not a difficult task, they say, but manning them with engineers with sufficient operating experience will be the ultimate test of whether growth targets can be reached.
Lloyds Register's nuclear business director Jerzy Grynblat said in an interview with the South China Morning Post that to qualify as 'experienced', nuclear-plant operators required eight to 10 years of on-the-job practice, compared with the five-year construction period for a plant.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Nuclear Energy Asia conference organised by the International Quality & Productivity Centre in Hong Kong last week, Grynblat said this staffing requirement posed the greatest challenge to the country's nuclear-power expansion plans.
Lloyds Register provides independent safety audits and risk-management services. Its risk-analysis software is used in about half of the world's nuclear power plants.
Zhao Chengkun, vice-chairman of the China Nuclear Energy Association, said the human-resource challenge came in the form of availability of high-level management and technical specialists. He would not give an estimate of a personnel shortfall, saying this would depend on the number and pace of new project approvals.