There’s a decades-long workforce scarcity in radiation security, and it’s getting worse, based on Tom Johnson, well being physics program director at Colorado State University.
“If everything goes as planned, there’s going to be a hundred odd new reactors in the next 10 years,” he mentioned on the symposium. “We are in no way prepared for that.”
Radiation security, often known as well being physics, is the science of defending folks from radiation, together with dose evaluation, contamination management and monitoring of environmental exposures. While nuclear engineers design and use radiation techniques, well being physicists guarantee these techniques are protected for employees, sufferers and the general public. Ideally, radiation security professionals full graduate-level training to grasp the underlying ideas.
As nuclear and medical radiation calls for are rising and comparatively few well being physicists obtain superior levels annually, the business is counting on coaching technicians to shut the experience hole. Folks in these positions undergo a 6-week coaching program that prepares them for routine duties, Johnson mentioned. Although this is enough for a lot of nuclear functions, failure to completely perceive radiation varieties, publicity pathways, or sudden circumstances can create severe security gaps, he mentioned. In different phrases, coaching tells you what to do, and training tells you why you do it.
“Quite frequently, a health physicist with limited training may not even recognize when there’s a problem,” he mentioned.
The workforce pool has been shrinking for many years attributable to spending cuts and program closures. Health physics levels dropped sharply within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, corresponding with the Department of Energy lowering its assist for well being physics training. It’s by no means recovered; immediately, solely a small variety of accredited packages nonetheless exist, and so they’re prone to shutting down.
New reactor designs and expertise require much more specialised radiation security experience, Johnson mentioned. Without extra instructional assist, even fewer college students will enter the sphere. Combined with a looming wave of retirements, the protection hole will proceed to worsen.