Eamonn Guilfoyle: Specialist Inspector, ONR

In our continuing series of case studies looking at the range of roles held by Prospect members across the energy sector, Eamonn Guilfoyle, talks about the varied nature of being a Specialist Inspector at the Office for Nuclear Regulation.

I enjoyed science in school, so I ended up doing a Physics degree at university. It wasn’t clear in my mind what I wanted to do after, but the financial crisis in 2008 seemed to narrow a lot of potential choices for me.

Employment across the board was dreadful back then, especially for graduates. There were rumours of recruiting firms taking the top half of a stack of CVs and putting them straight in the bin!

So, rather than go out into the dismal job market, I thought I would carry on studying. I was hunting around because as soon as you move into postgraduate study, you’re not just looking at what you’re interested in, but you’re looking at how you’re going to pay for it.

Eamonn Guilfoyle

I found a Masters degree in Physics and Technology of Nuclear Reactors at the University of Birmingham that was being funded by the nuclear sector and successfully applied for it.

The tuition fees were covered, so that made life easier, and the other big attraction was that part of the final project involved an industrial placement, which would be a good way of building experience.

I did my industrial placement at EDF, which obviously has a big Prospect branch, and from there I became familiar with a particular discipline called radiation protection.

After I completed my Masters, a post came up at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (another big Prospect branch) in their radiation protection department.

I went through DSTL’s very good graduate programme in radiation protection, and I learned an awful lot.

Over time, I had built up a wide-ranging CV, but I was trying to get back into the energy sector and particularly nuclear reactors because I had enjoyed that element of my Master’s degree.

After five years at DSTL, I applied for a job at the Office for Nuclear Regulation. I needed to be able to drive for the role and, luckily, one day before the application date closed, I passed my driving test. So, I was able to say in my application that I had a clean licence!

ONR

I’ve now been at ONR since 2016 as a specialist safety inspector and what I find really refreshing about this job is the variety. We work across many different areas and your role can change overnight as you get reallocated regularly.

Through the course of my time so far at ONR, I’ve worked on design assessment for nuclear reactors, such as the proposed UKHPR1000 reactor (a Chinese-led design).

These were designs being tweaked for the UK and you were providing comment to help an operator understand what would be needed to make it legally-compliant for a UK environment.

It was lots of technical work, lots of cross-disciplinary coordination, and international interaction. Before COVID, we were flying out for meetings and, for example, seeing operating reactors in China.

Design assessment is largely desk-bound, theoretical work where you are grappling with new concepts and designs.

Alternatively, I have also worked for a time on what we call fuels and wastes. Those are the sites here in the UK that are manufacturing fuel, or dealing with waste, and that is where you’re going to a site for an inspection or assessment.

I am currently working in emergency preparedness and response. That is, what are the arrangements in the very unlikely event that something untoward  happened? So, that’s interfacing with local authorities, police, fire brigade, ambulance services and so on.

It’s much more of a multi-agency, civil contingencies type of role.

Pride in our ‘quiet work’

I know that some people may have concerns about the nuclear industry, but my work is about keeping the nuclear industry safe.

Even if the government were to take a policy decision that there was to be no more new nuclear, or that all existing nuclear was to be shut down, there is still important work in ensuring that decommissioning is handled safely.

I got into nuclear because I believe it is a better alternative than fossil fuels and their impact on climate change. Gas, coal, and oil are taken as ‘safe technologies’ but they’ve had a devastating impact on our climate?

Nuclear energy can be part of a package to address climate change and to ensure that there is affordable and consistent energy for people to maintain their standard of living.

There’s a danger, particularly in a place like Britain where everything has worked for so long, that we’ve started to think of utilities as magical. You flick a switch, the lights come on. You turn tap, the water runs out.

Actually, behind it all, there are legions of workers and legions of policy and investment decisions that go into making it all happen seamlessly.

It’s that kind of quiet work in the background that people may not fully appreciate but I take an awful lot of satisfaction from it, and find it very rewarding.

My organisation too takes pride in doing everything we can to make sure that this promised new reactor technology is delivered safely. We’re not being a hindrance to it; we are working hard to provide insight and to encourage the designs to be better and safer.

We are, hopefully, helping to unlock a future world of abundant clean and affordable energy for everyone.