Nuclear needs more fuel, experts -NEA

LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) A new generation of nuclear power plants needs more investment in the education of engineers to build them and uranium mines to feed them, the head of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) said today.

After more than two decades when few new nuclear power stations were built, there may not be enough companies or skilled engineers to cope with the resurgence in interest sparked by fears over global warming, the agency's head, Luis Echavarri, said.

''The problem is a very important one. In many countries there has not been nuclear construction for 20-25 years so this means that many actors have disappeared,'' said Echavarri, whose agency advises the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on nuclear matters.

''One of the bottlenecks there would be the human factor, to have enough skilled people,'' he told the Reuters Global Energy Summit in London.

The energy industry as a whole has a skills shortage because of a lack of young people studying technical subjects, especially in Europe. The nuclear industry has found it harder to attract technical graduates in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.

But Echavarri said rising concern about climate change should rekindle interest in the technology and attract more people into physics and engineering. It takes so long to build an atomic power plant that there is still time to avoid a global skills bottleneck, he added.

''The problem is that to train people in nuclear takes time...

It's an important issue that we have to give a lot of attention to do but I think it's feasible,'' he said.

URANIUM SUPPLIES Echavarri, who led the construction of Spain's Almaraz-2 nuclear power plant before moving to Spanish nuclear safety watchdog the CSN and then to the NEA, also called for more uranium production to meet growing demand for the fuel.

The price of uranium has nearly doubled this year from 72 dollars a lb in January to 135 dollars as demand outpaces output.

''The price of uranium is going up significantly because there are expectations that the demand for uranium long term is going to be much higher than now. So people are betting in favour of a nuclear renaissance,'' the NEA director said.

''It is true that there has been an increase but the price is a relatively reasonable one for the time being,'' he added.

As with the labour shortage, he said that the long build time for atomic power plants meant there should not be a shortage of fuel for a new wave of plants expected to come on line over the next 10 to 15 years, so long as planning obstacles are removed and investments in mines are forthcoming.

''There is plenty of uranium for the renaissance...It's a question of making it available to the marketplace,'' he said.

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