So began the trip to London, though before any of the footprints workshop, there was an exam to complete (covering the technical material we had learnt about back in October). The afternoon was a catch up and a quick overview of the week, though for the whole day out the window it just snowed all the time, thinking that would be it for the whole week (how wrong I was).

The following day we went into London, to look at power and connectivity, this involved us first going to a huge birdcage, where each of us took it in turns to talk about what we think are boundaries and how it can be related to the birdcage, there were some interesting responses! After a lovely meal at firebox went to the art museum to look at an exhibition on death and how medicine has changed over the centuries. Reason for this was to view of how science is exhibited in artwork and got the chance to go the British Museum to view artefacts from across the world (for me it was the Rosetta stone).

The next day involved a trip to House of Commons to keep on the subject of power, influence and democracy, spoke to John Thurso, Jamie Reed both were MP’s whilst Keith Parker was CEO of the Nuclear Industry Association. Questions were asked covering several key aspects of the nuclear industry, where in the afternoon we reflected on what we learnt over the past several days. It was then a train ride from London to Birmingham.

For the next two days in Birmingham we covered a module on commercial awareness learning about the basics of accountancy to the different types of risk. Though whilst we were having fun learning, little did we know that the snow had returned with a vengeance! There was fear that we would be trapped in Birmingham though as we were eating our Japanese evening meal the blizzard subsided and so began the Cohort 6 Snowball fight! By end of Friday we all had an interesting week and each of us came away from it learning something new to use at our workplace. The story continues in next installment……..

The course I was attending was Technical Report Writing, run by IMechE. I thought this would be a good way to spend my CPD budget due to the fact I don’t have much experience of writing reports, but mainly because this will help a great deal in the quest towards Chartership.

Being the first person to turn up, I faced the common dilemma of which seat to pick. I went for the one facing the projector screen. I was soon joined by a Frenchman, a Pakistani, a Japanese chap, and a Colombian; which made me wonder if the course was intended for non-native English speakers. You could imagine my relief when a local turned up, complete with a can of Tennent’s Super. (Nah, that was a joke.)

I would describe the course in 3 and a half words: exciting, thrilling, fast-paced. We learnt about report structures and sentence formation, providing me with some really useful tips for producing a more effective technical piece of writing. The buffet lunch wasn’t bad either; there was more exotic food than I knew what to do with, things like samosas, vegetarian quiche, and chicken on a stick.

It may have been a hint of madness which made me choose to do this course, sacrificing a trip to Sweden (which many of my peers will be blogging about soon, I’m sure!).  On a social level, I can’t believe I made that mad decision, but on a professional level, the course has no doubt been really beneficial. Reinforcing what I have already said, I have taken away a mound of hints and tips which will provide a good platform for writing future reports and I would recommend the course to anyone else who has a spare 450 quid.

The course was called high impact presentations; it lasted for two days and was taught by a corporate training company called Dale Carnegie.

The name of the course did make me feel a little uneasy, presentations are not something I particularly enjoy, but I was told by the people I work with that it would be good and that there would be a free lunch. Now if there is one thing my time at university had taught me, it’s never turn down free food, even it involves a lecture about god and the meaning of life from the University’s Christian society (anyone who went to Lancaster Uni and heard of text for a toasty will know exactly what I mean) so I reluctantly agreed.

I turned up at Egremont Rugby club bright and early on the first day. Slightly nervous and not knowing what to expect , the people I worked with who had been on this course in the past had not told me much about it – I now realise they did this deliberately. As I walked into the room the first thing I noticed was a video camera, crap. What followed was two of the most painfully awkward yet amazingly beneficial days of my short working life.

What we were essentially asked to do was a number of short 5-10 minute presentations, in front of a camera that would film us. We’d then get taken into another room to watch back what we did to pick out what went well and what we could do to improve.

Over the two days we were taught a lot of things like where to put your hands and feet while you were talking, how to deal with difficult questions, how to relay complex information using analogies, how to open and close presentations and set up a Q and A session.

Looking back at the two days I couldn’t believe how much my presentation style had improved since the first presentation. At the start of day one I was nervous and dreaded getting up and speaking in front of other people and the camera. By the end of day two I was still nervous and dreaded getting up and speaking in front of others but I no longer looked it.

So to close out this blog the same way, I was taught to end a presentation with a brief summary. Something that I found awkward and would never of agreed to if I’d have known what I was going to be doing was really useful and in a strange way kind of fun and reminded me that you do need to step out of your comfort zone if you want to improve something.

Superphenix. Whilst admittedly sounding like a suspect German techno-disco club from name alone, the site of the now non-operational French Fast Reactor offered a fascinating insight into the Research and Development and Decommissioning programme of the French Nuclear Industry. Tucked away on the banks of the Rhone River east of Lyon, the iconic structure of Superphénix with its yellow steam generators made for an impressive approach to our visit.

Whilst we were en route to the site and a few minutes away, we were overtaken by numerous ‘Gendarmerie’ (Armed French Police) cars with blazing lights and sirens heading in the direction of Superphénix. It was hard not to have a sense of foreboding when an armed military force is speeding towards a nuclear facility but on arrival, we were glad to hear that this was just a planned security exercise. Following on from this, the comedic highlight of the trip was when one of the troops came bursting out of a door without warning and ran at full speed in the direction of one of us (Eric), who did an admirable job of holding onto the content of his bowels.

We were given a presentation on Superphénix to begin with before being taken onto the site itself. After we had got all 15 of us through the initial gates we were taken into the containment building which houses the reactor and the largest installed crane in Europe. The core of the reactor had been removed and they are currently draining the sodium coolant and cleaning the radioactivity from it. The scale of the operation inside was really impressive and put into scale the real challenge of decommissioning such a complex structure.

Firstly, one thing that the UK nuclear industry can learn is that steak for dinner in the canteen is definitely a winner (although my ‘Medium’ steak definitely still had a pulse). More seriously though, Superphénix showed how political pressure can close reactors, even if they are still working and leading research into the future of nuclear reactor design.

On behalf of the entire nucleargraduates delegation, we would like to thank our hosts at Superphénix for their hospitality and for offering us a brilliant insight into the French decommissioning programme.

The main UNOG building was built to house the League of Nations, the UN’s unsuccessful predecessor, and reflects the grandeur of Old Europe being truly palace like in style. The rest of the complex, expanded in the 1950s to house offices of the UN following the end of the Second World War is far more bland and looks like a set of office blocks you would expect to find on a business park anywhere in the world. This blandness continues inside the buildings, reflecting the UN’s position of neutrality and role as a forum for different nations to come together to talk and work together. One of the more interesting pieces of ‘Modern Art’ which bedecked the Palace was on the roof of the Human Rights conference room. This consisted of apparently random lumps, bumps and junk hanging from the roof and painted in multicolours. The idea is that you can only tell the complete colouring of individual objects by looking at things from every point of view; reflecting the need to stand in other nations shoes to understand their perspective during debates.

The main building itself provided a potted history of major world events in the history of the UN and League of Nations. Most of these were made up of newspaper articles and reading them really did make you realise just how much humanity has achieved (the moon landing) and yet how irresponsible we are as well (war, disease, and hunger across the globe). The scariest thing I felt, was how the weaknesses and mistakes of the League of Nations, seem to be reflected back even today by the modern day UN. Being apparently incapable of handling Syria, North Korea or Iran, have past mistakes really be learnt from?

Whatever its weaknesses though, our tour truly did demonstrate some of the great work done by the UN as a forum for international cooperation. The challenges it faces as an organisation are immense and just bringing countries together to talk through some of the World’s biggest issues is in itself a success. The day was truly inspiring and I think I can safely say everyone left with a far greater appreciation of international diplomacy and the role of the United Nations.

Once upon a time, far far away (in the middle of Cumbria) there was a group of eager to go nucleargraduates, all alone and singular. Well Jen and the team were never going to let that stand. We were thrusted into teams and formed the group that would later be known as Xenon Enterprises.

The following week would be the week from Hell……. but definitely a great team building exercise (One of those sink or swim moments), but as a team we managed to keep everyone afloat.

Through the course of this week we definitely to know each other. We also now know that working past 8pm never goes well,especially when there is a bar in the room next door.

The whole week ended with a well deserved night of celebrating to further build as one well defined family unit. After some near tearful goodbyes we disappeared off across the far reaches of the country to our sponsor sites.

Chapter 2 – Xmas dinner

The next reunion of the wonder team occurred in 1920′s Edinburgh. Gangsters, flappers and not one but two Zorros were the order of the night!

Chapter 3 – London

So we rock up in London buzzing to be together again and better yet we have a new addition. Other teams better watch out because the family is growing and we will be the best!!!!!

Given the UK mission aims and the complexity of its multilateral engagement you would be surprised at the small number of civil servants that work there. It’s also quite easy to question the value gained for the UK taxpayer from these bureaucrats given the often painfully slow pace of international agreements. It is however important to remember nations are required to drive change, which is easily eroded by changes in domestic circumstances and spotlight changes.  The United Nations is only a forum in which to discuss and agree change hence the success of the UK mission is intertwined with that of the United Nations.

The UK mission focuses on human rights, international trade, nuclear disarmament and foreign development, which coincide current high profile cases where the United Nations is arguably failing. The following is a few examples; the Syrian civil war, intellectual property rights, Iranian nuclear proliferation and “corruption” in developing nations. Each of these issues is complex and often involves cultural change, which takes time. Though admittedly this is not a perfect system a question to ask yourself is; what do you replace it with?

The ambassadors in the UK mission are a sparse resource covering a broad scope as previously mentioned. Though looking at this from an industry point of view there is a worrying characteristic. The bureaucrats act on government policy and influence international legislation though most of the ambassadors have only held civil service positions since leaving university. Interacting principally with their political masters, other government departments and lobbyists. Given the truly internationally interconnected industries, such as the nuclear power industry, are these ambassadors truly representative of the UK business interest? Or do they push for a convoluted objectives warped by politics?

Here is my profile:

http://www.wiset.org.uk/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=488&cntnt01returnid=153

It all started in October when 36 graduates descended on the Lake District for our first two weeks of training, to start with we were split into four teams and completed loads of team building activities, including swinging from ropes out over a river, climbing trees and acting like blind sheep who were guided by a sheppard!  These were all to prepare us for working in our teams for the next two years, starting with the team challenge for the two weeks.  This was to come up with a solution to a problem that the UK nuclear industry has been debating since its inception; so nothing too hard then.  We had to present our proposal to a panel of experts who judged the best presentation based on commercial and technical content (obviously the best team won!).

During this two weeks we also had lectures for the first module of our post graduate certificate in nuclear technologies, went on a site visit of URENCO’s enrichment facility, and bizarrely, made model submarines and power plants our of paper and post it notes!

In December we had our annual conference in Edinburgh which was followed by our 1920s themed Christmas dinner, this was the first chance for all of cohort 5 and 6 had to meet each other. It was a good opportunity to hear to the kinds of secondments other people were doing and what they thought of them.  The dinner was a roaring success; costumes included ‘the wall street crash’, a time traveller from the future, 1920s beachwear as well as the expected mob of gangsters.

January saw us travel down to London for our first footprints workshop, this consisted of a extreme variety of activities, many of these designed to push us outside of our comfort zones (the way I am writing this blog) and the highlight of which for many of us was the opportunity to question politicians on topics as diverse as the low level waste repository in Cumbria, science and engineering education and House of Lords Reform.

We then travelled straight from this to Birmingham for the first module of the certificate of nuclear professionalism (CONP), this one was commercial awareness.  Despite the snow threatening to leave us stranded we completed two days of commercial tuition by lecturers from Aston University and NDA directors.  This included finance, risk, stakeholders and making a business case.

Now it’s February and I’m a little sad that we don’t have any other event like this until training zone 2 in May.  I will have plenty to keep me busy until then though. I have just moved to a new project in Rolls Royce civil nuclear, in the constantly frantic manufacturing department and the science club we started has really taken off, so we have to find educational ways to entertain 50 children once a week.

C is for challenging

We all agreed that nucleargraduates is a challenging experience, it pushes you out of your comfort zone.  Personally I don’t see what is wrong with being comfortable at work, yet with reflection I can always see how I benefited from the experiences.  At the time we were asked to do this we were, blindly, about to embark on an interesting two days pushing us and teaching us about power in the working world.

A is for A-Frame

In the first two weeks of our time as nucleargraduates we were removed from the outside world and forced to interact as a cohort.  Part of this involved many a team building exercise.  One of these exercises involved transporting a member on the team on a massive A-frame using only ropes.  The field was muddy and wet. The A-frame had to be touching the ground at all times. We had no idea what we were doing.  Our team mate Helen took up job as the transportee, the rest of us the rope handlers.  With a sketchy start we quickly accelerated to a quick victory over the task.

S is for Sprant

I used to think that Sprant was the past participle to Sprint.  It was also our original team name

C is for community

Community is a big part of nucleargraduates, we are a big community as a cohort, even as two cohorts.  We all help each other throughout the duration of the scheme. As a team we have dial ins every month where we can talk about what is happening and how we feel about our work.  This is good as it allows us to vent any problems that we have with a community of people that reflect on it with you.

A is for ‘Agents for Change’

As nucleargraduates we are encouraged to be agents for change.  With this advise we’re to go into our companies as fresh young professionals set to change the ‘Pale and Stale’ image of the nuclear industry.  This a challenge.

D is for development

nucleargraduates is all about personal development.  Everything you do is to develop you as a professional.  All I can say is that.

E is for excitment

We have all started out on a new and exciting career in an exciting sector of industry.