Nuclear Science and Engineering Industrial Placement Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement with EDF Energy and have loved working for them. Working at Sizewell B, the UK's only Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR), has been a genuine honour as I have been able to experience the nature of this type of an operational nuclear power station. I thrived on learning more and more about the station and all the different systems. This placement is ideal for those who want to gain an insight into nuclear electricity generation!

I felt massively valued by my fellow colleges in Design Engineering. They were a very experienced set of engineers with a wide age range and areas of expertise. I felt that they would always be there for listening to my opinions. Again, with time your experience builds and they will value your suggestion of ‘alternative’ solutions to problems. Do remember that you are a placement student and so you are not an expert - sometimes people need to remember that everyone starts off somewhere!

Throughout my time at Sizewell B, I was continuously monitored after I requested to have monthly accountability meetings with my line manager. We would go through my successes, skills I have strengthened, areas for improvement and new projects that have come up for me. In the relaxed environment of our office, I could always depend on my line manager or anyone in the office for guidance in areas that were new to me. I also had a mentor assigned to me and I had Mentor Guides (specific to the job role) to sign off.

As much with any industrial placement, the early stages can be very slow and have a very small workload. However, there was plenty of reading/ training material to chew through. As this knowledge grew and the work processes at EDF Energy became familiar to myself, a lot more work could be taken on. There was always something to do and I went further to finding even more to do. By the end of my placement I was always busy but I thrived on it! The more you put in, the more you will get out it!

Early on, I was given the role of the Station’s Minor Modification Administrator which allowed me to quickly learn a lot of the processes at Sizewell B. When I had gained more knowledge about the systems, I was given numerous Engineering Changes (ECs) to author. For one of them, I had a lot of flexibility and I really got to design a lot of it! There were always barriers in place to stop wrong documents or drawings from being issued. But yes, a lot of responsibility!

Prior to this placement, I felt that I was already strong in the skills required for my studies. But, these were strengthened even more throughout my time at Sizewell B. The greatest gain from my placement in terms of skills are self-management, managing tasks and working with and relating to others. All of which have been used through university in small group projects but then working on a nuclear power plant expanded the size of the people you had to work with for the end results! Work is a totally different way of life compared to studying – you are leaning the useful and practical stuff that cannot always be found in a textbook!

Very relaxed, the team was a mixture of ages and backgrounds, although I was the youngest in the office by around 6 years! As long your work gets done and provides the results, everyone is happy! The atmosphere was always friendly in my office, which was down to the characters in our office. Some offices were never like that and that is just part of work!

The only problem I had was the on-boarding part of my placement and getting a start date confirmed. However, this was normally due to the vetting procedure for security clearances. But, luckily mine went through quickly in the end and I got the date I wanted! During the placement, training was continuous and I was set up in my first week with all the fundamental training! There is always some form of work for the placement students coming due to the nature of Design Engineering! So overall quite good.

Quite a lot, for example I got the opportunity to go to Head Office in Barnwood for a week, in the first couple of months, for some extra training! Accountability meetings helped a lot and there was also continuing engineering training periodically. Again, it is a case of the more you put in, the more you get out of it!

Very appealing, with two European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) at Hinkley Point C underway with their construction and the proposal of two more at Sizewell C to be built too. They seem to heavily invest in graduates, with a good few of them coming through the other Early Career programmes (Industrial Placements for example)! For me I really want to stay in nuclear as the future seems very bright! This has led to me applying for the graduate scheme and university sponsorship for my Masters year in September – which I am currently waiting for an interview!

There was only one other placement student on site and we did not live together, so that was limited. Due to where Sizewell B is based, a lot of employees travel from a fair bit away (Ipswich, Lowestoft and even Norwich!) So, this also puts a limit on the people you can meet. You also have the apprentices in maintenance, but again they may travel from far away. Without a car, you cannot really get anywhere - it is Suffolk!

Very expensive compared to other stations. It purely depends on what you want to compromise. This was one of the only bad aspects of the placement. I personally paid around £140 a week on rent (all bills included). This is expensive, but was only a 5-minute drive from site (Leiston) whereas, if you wanted cheaper Ipswich would be best place to live. But, that comes with a travel time of around 30/40-minute drive to site. Then, you must consider if you are going to be involved in a Refuelling Outage as rent increases exponentially for a good few weeks! I was lucky enough to have a rugby team to socialise with!

Poor, it is quite a shock for the average student. But, this is a year placement and you cannot go out like a typical student in the week. I personally found it a very good year and was not bothered about going out due to the nature of the area I lived in! I just tied in nightlife when I went home or away at other cities. In Leiston there a few pubs, but if you are from the North, you are always going to have a shock at prices the further south you stray away! Your nearest “good student” night outs would be Ipswich or Norwich.

Depends on where you live. For me in Leiston, there was a leisure centre so I just used the gym and pool in my spare time. There was a 5 a side football night on Wednesdays (but I don’t play football). There was also a local rugby team, where a lot of people play from Sizewell B and who I played for a couple times, in Aldeburgh (5 miles away from Sizewell B). Really recommend if you play – great for socialising!