The NEA brought together global policymakers and experts who are members of the NEA High-Level Group on Improving Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector (HLG-GB) to Paris on 18-20 September 2024 to discuss the ongoing initiatives and explore new avenues to foster gender balance in the nuclear sector.
Members discussed the new collaborative NEA and Nuclear Regulators for Gender Equity (NRGE) initiative which will focus on collecting data and developing tailored guidance for participating regulatory bodies from around the world to improve their gender balance. Regulatory bodies are invited to contribute gender-disaggregated workforce data to receive data summaries and recommendations for their organisations. An overview of the gender balance data trends for nuclear regulators in aggregate will be published in late 2025.
This project builds on the NEA’s 2023 Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector report and is designed to provide actionable insights and foster accountability for achieving gender equity across nuclear regulators.
Dr Fiona Rayment at Roadmaps to New Nuclear 2024.
The HLG-GB meeting participants also joined discussions with ministers, senior government representatives, CEOs and other leaders and experts in the nuclear field at Roadmaps to New Nuclear 2024. Fiona Rayment, Chair of the HLG-GB, addressed the ministers about the importance of gender balance and the opportunity represented by the energy transition to transform the nuclear workforce to meet the needs of the future:
"Diverse and inclusive workforces benefit everyone. Diversity improves productivity, the working environment, profitability, and drives sustainability. The work of the NEA to collaborate centrally with governments to make sure that data is available and to coordinate international action under the framework of the OECD Recommendation on Improving the Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector is key to ensuring that we have the workforce the sector needs to contribute to achieving ambitious climate goals and fulfilling our role in the energy transition."
Breakout session “Plan 2035: Building a diverse, inclusive, and gender-balanced workforce” at Roadmaps to New Nuclear 2024.
Dr Rayment, Lisa M. Marshall, a member of the Council of Advisors of the NEA Global Forum on Nuclear Education, Science, Technology and Policy and President of American Nuclear Society, and Aleshia Duncan, HLG-GB bureau member and US Department of Energy Deputy Assistant Secretary also joined the panel during breakout session entitled “Plan 2035: Building a diverse, inclusive, and gender-balanced workforce”. The session was co-organised with Women in Nuclear (WiN) NEA and brought together diverse voices to inform and shape new initiatives for building the nuclear workforce of the future. It emphasised the importance of youth engagement and highlighted innovative, female-led projects from the Women in Nuclear (WiN) Global network and youth initiatives like Women in Nuclear Young Generation (WiN YG) and Nuclear4Climate (N4C).
HLG-GB members also discussed the upcoming events and activities. One of them is the NEA Global Forum Rising Stars workshop organised by the NEA at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Karlsruhe, Germany, on 25-26 November 2024 to welcome female rising stars in science, technology, education and policy into the global nuclear community. Initiated in 2023, the Rising Stars Programme offers professional development, introduces participants to potential mentors and creates cohort groups for peer-to-peer networking.
To further inform efforts to improve the inclusivity of the nuclear sector’s future workforce, the NEA Global Forum’s Workforce Survey on Student Experiences is set to launch. The survey, conducted by the NEA and the University of Michigan, will collect feedback from students and recent graduates to understand their experiences in nuclear education and identify how institutions can create more welcoming environments for all backgrounds.
