News releases 2015

Atkins support skills at Women in Nuclear event - 20 January 2015

Atkins is supporting the first major Women in Nuclear (WiN) UK conference, taking place on 20 January, which will bring together industry and government to discuss gender balance, capacity building and public acceptability of nuclear power.

Atkins' nuclear business is supporting the development of the industry's future leaders by sponsoring 40 graduates from the nucleargraduates programme to attend the WiN UK conference. The graduates will also participate in a 'speedmentoring' session giving them insights into technical and career-related issues from leaders of the industry, as well as the opportunity to build their industry networks at an early stage in their career.

Speakers at the conference will include Baroness Verma, Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), Alan Raymant, COO of Horizon Nuclear Power, and Dame Sue Ion, chair of the Nuclear Innovation Research Advisory Board. An exhibition will run alongside the day-long conference programme, and the event will welcome attendees from a number of leading companies in the nuclear industry.

Miranda Kirschel, head of business development in Atkins' nuclear business and President of WiN UK, said: "Attendees will have the opportunity to be part of the first industry wide debate on gender balance, and have their say on how they would like to see the industry changing in the future. Gender balance is not just a women's issue, it is the responsibility of people at all levels, in all disciplines, irrespective of gender."  

Julianne Antrobus, strategy director in Atkins' nuclear business, said: "It is incredibly important to get young people interested in pursuing a career in engineering. Atkins has done a lot to excite that next generation of young engineers, and the time is right now to show these new graduates that there is an industry here and a real career path."

Christine Lennon, nucleargraduates manager, said: "The nucleargraduates are currently in London exploring the subject of 'Power and Influence' as part of their 'Footprints' CSR programme, which they spend 10 per cent of their time on.  An issue such as gender balance is very pertinent to this subject and we are delighted that they are able to attend the WiN conference through the generous sponsorship of Atkins.  I expect the conference to be thought-provoking and to provide our graduates with information which will allow them to challenge constructively the status quo.

"Although women are still under-represented in STEM careers generally, nucleargraduates has been successful in attracting a higher than average percentage of women to our programme (up to a third overall).  Our alumni act as advocates for the scheme and are live examples of successful men and women in nuclear careers, with many now acting as operational line managers for new graduates."

The nucleargraduates programme is a scheme backed by 20 different organisations, including Atkins, who work in the nuclear industry, and has been designed and put together by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The scheme lasts for two years and gives graduates from science and engineering backgrounds the opportunity to undertake three eight-month secondments in the UK.

Atkins has over 50 years' experience in the nuclear sector servicing all part of the industry, including new build, defence, generation, and clean up. Atkins is helping to deliver the next generation of nuclear power plants whilst at the same time maintaining the existing generating fleet through strategic partnerships with operators, as well as safely decommissioning legacy facilities. 

Ends

For more information:

Paul Childs
PR manager, Energy

paul.childs@atkinsglobal.com
+44 207 121 2828

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Notes to editors:

Atkins

Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com ) is one of the world's leading design, engineering and project management consultancies*, employing some 18,000 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. Our people's breadth and depth of expertise and drive to ask why has allowed us to plan, design and enable some of the world's most complex and time critical projects.

*15th largest global design firm (Engineering News-Record 2014) and the third largest multidisciplinary consultancy in Europe (Svensk Teknik och Design 2013).

For more information about the nucleargraduates programme, visit http://www.nucleargraduates.com/.

Recent Atkins Energy projects:

• UAE's peaceful nuclear new build programme - providing technical assurance to lenders backing the United Arab Emirates' most ambitious energy infrastructure projects;
• UK nuclear generation - part of the Strategic Supply Chain Partnership for EDF Energy's Nuclear Generation business providing additional expert engineering support as the company seeks to extend the life of its existing nuclear AGR fleet;
• UK new nuclear programme - working collaboratively with Horizon Nuclear Power providing engineering and related technical services for a new generation of nuclear power stations at Wylfa Newydd, on Anglesey and Oldbury in South Gloucestershire, UK;
• Nuclear decommissioning - currently preferred bidder on a new contract with Sellafield Ltd for its Silos Direct-encapsulation Plant (SDP) project in the UK, as part of an equal three-way joint venture with Areva and Mace (a.m.a.);
• North Sea and Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms - extending the operational life of critical oil and gas platforms to allow cost-efficient and safe recovery of hydrocarbons from mature fields;
• ENI assets in Australia - providing engineering and consultancy services to ENI across their portfolio of operating and non-operating assets and any future developments in Australia;
• Shell's oil and gas assets worldwide - providing technical and safety engineering services to Shell's onshore and offshore assets worldwide under an Enterprise Framework Agreement (EFA);
• SSE offshore wind alliance - providing expert engineering and design support for the UK's biggest offshore wind alliance with Scottish and Southern Energy;
• DONG Energy offshore wind farms - designing five offshore substations for DONG Energy's Walney and Burbo extension projects as well as the new Race Bank project;
• Energy from Waste - helping Energos deliver an Advanced Conversion Facility as part of Viridor and Glasgow City Council's £146 million Glasgow Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre (GRREC) in the UK;
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)- Atkins is the technical adviser to the UK government's Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) for the CCS Commercialisation Programme which supports the development and deployment of full chain CCS demonstration plants.

Recent projects from across the Atkins Group:

Atkins is working across urban regeneration, master planning, national energy programmes, major transport schemes, water and environment projects - applying smart design solutions on projects including:

  • Central Planning Office - helping to co-ordinate Qatar's National 2030 Vision for world class transport infrastructure, which will bring major benefits to the economy;
  • The London 2012 Games infrastructure transformation - as technical advisor to London's boroughs as the Olympic Park moves into its legacy configuration as a follow-on role to our work as the Games' official engineering and design provider;
  • 's peaceful nuclear new build programme - providing technical assurance to lenders backing the United Arab Emirates' most ambitious energy infrastructure projects;
  • North Sea and Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms - extending the operational life of critical oil and gas platforms to allow cost-efficient and safe recovery of fuel sources from mature fields;
  • offshore wind alliance - provision of expert engineering and design support for the UK's biggest offshore wind alliance with Scottish and Southern Energy;
  • - designing the Central London twin tunnels and station architecture for Europe's biggest civil engineering scheme which will see tunnels passing beneath 470 listed buildings and critical infrastructure;
  • Railway - providing multidisciplinary design expertise on the 1,200 km Rail network which will passenger and freight transport in the ;
  • Denmark - providing signalling expertise on the first countrywide installation of an train control and management system in Denmark;
  • Hong Kong-- Bridge - lead consultant on this integral part of the new Hong Kong link road scheme which will significantly boost land connectivity in the region;
  • Sixth Form College - design of the energy consumption College in the UK which aims to reduce operational energy use by more than 60% compared to previous designs;
  • UK National Composites Centre - providing technical expertise to bring the latest lightweight carbon fibre materials to all engineering sectors, helping to develop innovative applications and reduce costs and carbon;
  • US Environmental Protection Agency - providing technical assessment and analysis of national water-related resources and ecological systems in North America;
  • Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) broadband - providing technical, commercial and procurement support to help deliver broadband to one of Europe's most remote regions.


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