TRAINING AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AT TVO

1 TVO

TVO (Teollisuuden Voima Oyj) is a non-listed public company founded in 1969 to produce electricity for its shareholders at cost price. The company owns and operates two nuclear power plant units, Olkiluoto 1 and Olkiluoto 2 (OL1 and OL2) at Olkiluoto in Eurajoki. TVO is also a shareholder in the Meri-Pori coal-fired power plant. A third nuclear power plant unit is under construction at Olkiluoto (OL3). In July, 2010 the Parliament ratified the favourable decision-in-principle the Finnish Government made concerning the Company's application to construct its fourth nuclear power plant unit Olkiluoto 4 (OL4). The Olkiluoto power plant has been running for more than 30 years with an extremely high degree of reliability. The capacity factors for both units have been at the top of the league internationally for nearly the entire history of the power plant. Olkiluoto 1 today has a net output of 885 MW and Olkiluoto 2 860 MW, and together they produce slightly more than 16% of all the electricity consumed in Finland.

2 TVO´s personnel

Competent personnel are the foundation of responsible nuclear-generated electricity production and training is provided for all categories of personnel. At the moment, TVO is focusing on the OL3 project, safety culture improvement (organisational learning and the “zero tolerance” approach), advanced knowledge in nuclear power and power plant technology. TVO has hired many new employees in recent years. At the end of 2009, TVO employees totalled almost 800. Employment relationships at TVO are long and personnel turnover is minimal. The average period of employment for our personnel is 15 years. TVO employs many Finnish pioneers in the nuclear field. As a result of the OL3 project, we have hired new pioneers and are ensuring the preservation of strong know-how for the future.

3 Training at TVO

TVO´s staff has acquired unique know-how with regards to the development of nuclear power plant infrastructure, the successful operation of plant units, their maintenance and modernisation and the planning and construction of new plant units. Personnel turnover at Olkiluoto has been minimal, but in the years to come we will be faced with a more and more transitional situation in response to retirements coming onboard. At TVO we shall be continuously transferring the know-how and plant-related skills that we have acquired to new skilled personnel. About 40% of TVO´s staff has been employed by the company for over 20 years. During the last five years, TVO has recruited almost 300 new people for various jobs. The new ones working in the OL3 project are being trained for the tasks connected with the forthcoming operations taking place during the construction and initialisation stages.

Every new TVO employee is required to undergo site entry training, induction training and job training relevant to his or her position. With induction training, employees are given basic information about radiation; environmental, fire and occupational safety and the work procedures at TVO and the power plant units. Between 2005 and 2010 more than 20,000 people received site induction training. Staff members that are motivated by their jobs, professionally skilled and competent ensure the safe operation of a nuclear power plant. TVO is achieving a high level of expertise by means of, for example, a general know-how survey, job-specific training requirements and programmes, job rotation and orientation programmes. Training specialists plan, along with supervisors, suitable orientation for each TVO employee and put together a training and development plan. With the management of know-how we apply a job-specific method in which we have detailed the minimum competence requirements, together with training plans, for an office group performing the same function. Our method is an application of the SAT (Systematic Approach to Training) method developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Every year TVO prepares the company’s training programme, which is based on the job-specific training requirements coming from different divisions of the company, while taking into account the management’s development-based targets for personnel and other current training needs. The programme functions by providing systematic support for the maintenance and development of personnel know-how and competence. The maintenance of personnel competence and its upgrading are ensured by the provision of further training and on-the-job training. Operator training includes both instruction in theory and training on a simulator that exactly mimics the functions of a power plant unit. Training for the operators of the new OL3 unit has already begun. The total number of training days for employees at Olkiluoto in 2009 was about 9000 days. On average, each TVO employee spends 12.5 days training a year.

4 National nuclear safety course

In Finland, basic professional training courses on nuclear safety have been organised since 2002. Finnish nuclear organisations have re-evaluated the manpower situation and established an organising committee to develop and organise the necessary basic post-graduate professional training of new recruits and staff members. The training is tailored to suit the priority needs of the new nuclear power plant project, but it also aims to provide, in the long-term, a new generation of nuclear experts to replace the generation that will retire within the next ten years. The organising committee includes representatives of the following organisations: the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK); nuclear power utilities TVO and Fortum; the Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT; Lappeenranta (LUT) and Helsinki Universities of Technology (TKK, now Aalto University) and the Ministry of Employment and the Economy (TEM). All the lecturers are provided by these organisations, which also share all the training positions in a representative way. The training is given in Finnish. Although the training is partly based on a similar course developed by the IAEA, it has been adapted to suit Finnish conditions. A large amount of the material is completely new and also contains parts tailored to suit the future needs related to increasing generation capacity and the new Gen III type reactors. By 2010, around 500 persons will have participated in the training courses. Course n° 8, that includes 65 students, is still on-going. The duration of this course is 6 weeks, with 24 full training days.

Jaana Isotalo
Head of general training Human Resources / General Training
Teollisuuden Voima Oyj
Olkiluoto
27160 Eurajoki
Tel. +358 50-327 6609