Manufacturing includes all of the processes that bring to life a design using materials, equipment, tools and manpower to produce a finished product.
Manufacturing for the UK nuclear industry is not like working in any mundane manufacturing facility. The products being manufactured can range from a tool supporting refuelling of the current fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, a test rig for a nuclear waste carrying flask or a heat exchanger to be used in a reactor primary core.
The manufacturing function can be divided into many different roles. For ease when deciding whether there is a role for you in the nuclear industry, we can split the function into three main areas. These are management; manufacturing engineering; and operations.
Manufacture Management
Includes all the tasks associated with planning, organising, controlling and monitoring of the manufacturing process. Manufacturing Management also encompasses the recruiting and training of the required resources to enable them to deliver to time, costs and quality.
Manufacture Engineering
Includes all the work from analysing the detailed design to developing the manufacturing methodology, process flow, plant layout and any required tooling. All of this comes under the remit of manufacturing engineering.
Manufacture Operations
Includes the manufacturing operations process includes receipt of materials, machining, fabrication, assembly, testing and commissioning. All of this supported throughout by quality control inspection which is the key differentiator or manufacturing in the UK Nuclear Industry due to the increase in the quality requirement through documentation, non-destructive testing and additional testing and commissioning requirements.
Okay, so where do you go from here?
Dependant upon your current qualification, skills and experience you may be in a position to apply right for a job immediately or find out more about the training courses available.
Read our Six-Steps To Get Into Nuclear guide where you will be guided through the process of identifying your chances of finding a role in the UK Nuclear Industry and provided with help and advice to bag that role.
