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Employment in the Nuclear and Wind Electricity Generating Sectors Employment in the Nuclear and Wind Electricity Generating Sectors Title: Employment in the Nuclear and Wind Electricity Generating Sectors Author: Ian Emsley Produced by: World Nuclear Association Published: July 2020 Report No. 2020/006 Cover photo: Construction of Barakah nuclear power plant (Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation) © 2020 World Nuclear Association. Registered in England and Wales, company number 01215741 This technical position paper reflects the views of industry experts but does not necessarily represent those of any of World Nuclear Association’s individual member organizations. Contents Foreword 3 Executive Summary 4 1. Introduction 5 2. Estimating Employment Creation 6 3. Employment Creation in Low-Carbon Electricity Generation 8 3.1 Planning and Construction 8 3.2 Operations 9 3.3 Decommissioning 9 4. Comparison of ‘Steady State’ Employment in the Nuclear and 10 Wind Sectors 4.1 Nuclear Steady State Employment 10 4.2 Wind Steady State Employment 11 4.3 Comparison of Nuclear and Wind 12 5. Other Aspects of Employment in Nuclear and Wind 13 6. Conclusions 14 References 15 Annex: Costs of Low-Carbon Electricity Systems 16 Foreword Nuclear power has several advantages compared with other sources of electricity generation. These include its small environmental footprint, its cost- effectiveness and its contributions to electricity price stability, security of supply and resilience in an electric system. However, the level of employment provided by the nuclear sector, and the associated contribution to local and national economies, has been given relatively little coverage. This World Nuclear Association technical position paper focuses on the job opportunities created by nuclear power plants. A comparison with another major source of low-carbon electricity – wind – is given to gauge the relative advantages of nuclear in this area. World Nuclear Association is grateful to Ian Emsley, Consultant, for his contribution in preparing this report. 3 Executive Summary Low-carbon generating technologies vary significantly in the employment that they create. Employment is created largely during the construction stage and throughout the network of supply chain companies needed to maintain operations. Most employment estimates in the sector are ‘point-in-time’, i.e. they provide a snapshot rather than a view over the entire plant lifetime. The rapid growth of wind power thus distorts the contribution it might make in a ‘steady state’ of neither growth nor decline. This paper uses existing studies for specified countries to estimate employment in a steady state for both nuclear and wind energy. By separating employment into several distinct stages – construction; operations and maintenance; supply chain; and decommissioning – a steady state employment estimate is presented for the generation of 1000 TWh of electricity over a year. On the basis of data from France and the USA, for this amount of electricity nuclear creates 461,000 jobs to wind’s 346,000 jobs, i.e. about 25% more employment per unit of electricity than wind power. Other attractive features of nuclear sector employment include comparatively good pay, long-term job security and a high degree of localisation in the host country. Although nuclear generation requires significant investment in employment, it maintains a competitive advantage over intermittent sources of low-carbon electricity such as wind. As a highly reliable and stable source of electricity, nuclear generation does not require additional investment in backup capacity or storage, while investments in grids are relatively low. When the total costs of the plant and system are taken into account, nuclear offers not only more local and national job opportunities but also provides cheaper decarbonized electricity than wind. 4 1 Introduction The policy response to the challenge This paper compares the nuclear of climate change is transforming and wind technologies in terms of the way that electricity is generated, their employment characteristics, transmitted, stored and used. Of using information that is available the several generating technologies in the public domain, in a way that competing to occupy the low-carbon produces a sense of the wider segment, two of the biggest are scope of employment created, that nuclear and wind energy. Table 1 is, employment in the supply chain shows the respective contribution of as well as the plants themselves nuclear, solar and wind to electricity and over the lifetime of the facilities. generation in five countries. Wind has been selected from amongst the different forms of Alongside its environmental impact, renewables because there is greater the cost of electricity of a particular data availability, it is expected that generation technology is clearly a wind will be a major source of future major consideration. Recent studies renewable power, and it is often have shown that nuclear power cited as creating more domestic remains the cheapest option when employment than most other forms entire life-cycle costs are taken into of renewable power, in particular account.2 See Annex. solar PV. However, in assessing which technology can most securely and reliably provide power at the lowest overall cost, policy-makers frequently express interest in other aspects of the different technologies. The employment created by the electricity suppliers and the nature of that employment – such as its location, skills, longevity and remuneration – are often aspects of particular interest. Table 1. Generation and capacity in selected countries (2017)1 France UK USA South Korea Germany Generation Capacity Generation Capacity Generation Capacity Generation Capacity Generation Capacity (TWh) (GWe) (TWh) (GWe) (TWh) (GWe) (TWh) (GWe) (TWh) (GWe) Nuclear 382 (71%) 63 (49%) 64 (20%) 8.9 (9%) 805 (20%) 100 (9%) 141 (27%) 22 (19%) 72 (12%) 9.5 (5%) Wind 25 (5%) 14 (11%) 50 (16%) 20 (20%) 254 (6%) 88 (8%) 2.2 (<1%) 1.2 (1%) 104 (17%) 56 (27%) Solar PV 9.6 (2%) 8.6 (7%) 12 (4%) 13 (13%) 77 (2%) 43 (4%) 7.1 (1%) 5.8 (5%) 39 (6%) 42 (20%) Other 60 (11%) 21 (17%) 42 (13%) 8 (8%) 392 (10%) 100 (9%) 11.7 (2%) 4.9 (4%) 80 (13%) 15.8 (8%) Renewable (Hydro, biomass) Fossil Fuel 59 (11%) 20 (16%) 152 (47%) 51 (50%) 2536 (62%) 748 (70%) 370 (69%) 84 (71%) 325 (52%) 84 (40%) 1 US Energy Information Administration website 2 Nestor A. Sepulveda, Decarbonization of Power Systems: Analyzing Different Technological Pathways, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (September 2016); The Costs of Decarbonisation: System Costs with High Shares of Nuclear and Renewables, OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (June 2019) 5 Estimating Employment 2 Creation This paper provides an overall state’ or sustainable employment estimate of employment created for both wind and nuclear, by which on a unit basis, but to start with it is meant employment per unit of is necessary to comment on the capacity or of electricity generated different ways in which employment in a sector that is neither growing can be counted and on existing nor contracting and construction is estimates of employment. sufficient only to maintain the size of the current fleet. Low-carbon generating technologies tend, by their nature, to be highly In reaching a comprehensive capital-intensive and have a small or understanding of employment in the non-existent fuel requirement. As a steady state sector, estimates for result, employment is relatively low in employment created by the activity in the operation of the generating plant question across the economy should but higher in both the supply chain of be used. These forms of employment the industries producing and servicing are commonly divided into three the plant and equipment, and during categories: direct, indirect and the construction phase of the project. induced employment. Therefore, in order to gain a complete picture of employment created by Direct Employment the technology, it is necessary to Direct employment is usually taken estimate the employment created in to be that within the nuclear or wind the manufacturing, supplying and sectors themselves and within the servicing of the plant and equipment geographical limits of the area under and at all stages of the plant life-cycle, consideration. It may be limited to from planning to decommissioning. employment at the power plant itself In the case of nuclear, there is also but could include employment at the employment created in the industries utility offices and workshops remote supplying the fuel, which is not the from the power plant site, such as case with wind. the head office of a utility operating several plants. It may also be taken to Employment estimates of the low- include suppliers that are specialised carbon power sector frequently in nuclear procurement. In the case present ‘point-in-time’ estimates. of suppliers that serve other markets, These estimates provide only a care needs to be taken to include partial view of the total employment only that employment dedicated to effect, in particular because they the nuclear or wind sectors. Some make no allowance for the state of studies take direct employment to development of the industry in a include the operator of the plant given country. Most obviously, where (usually a utility) and Tier 1 suppliers, the use of a technology is growing i.e. in this context those companies rapidly, as it currently is with wind, that contract directly with the utility. allowance needs to be made for Where only the employment created the temporarily enlarged labour by the plant operator is included in force employed in planning and the ‘direct employment’ category, construction. Where an industry is the numbers can often be readily essentially mature, as it largely is with estimated via surveys and/or nuclear, the labour force employed company reports. in planning and construction will be limited to that required to provide Indirect Employment replacement plant. This report aims to This category seeks to capture make allowance for the growth factor the employment created in those and to give an estimate of ‘steady companies supplying goods and 6 services to the industry that are of the equipment, themselves not specialised to the sector in employ people for that purpose and question.
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