On Thursday, July 22, 2021, Saskatchewan-based First Nations Power Authority (FNPA) and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) announced their intent to work together on training and job creation for Indigenous people in Canada.
GEH has created 30 positions for skilled field technicians in Ontario’s nuclear industry, and GFH and FNPA are encouraging all qualified Indigenous people to apply. FNPA will work with communities to encourage recruitment into the roles, and GEH will train successful Indigenous applicants to support maintenance and refueling outages at nuclear power plants. FNPA is supportive of the job opportunities offered by the nuclear sector for Canadian Indigenous communities.
“FNPA’s collaboration with GE Hitachi is an important opportunity to engage Indigenous peoples in the creation of clean energy options with the future nuclear fleet in Canada,” said Guy Lonechild, President and CEO, First Nations Power Authority. “FNPA got its start connecting Indigenous communities with corporate Canada so our work with GE Hitachi is a natural next step towards economic reconciliation in the nuclear sector.”
GEH plans to hire and train technicians in 2021 for the 2022 outage season at boiling water reactors GEH serves in the United States. The new hires will be trained to service BWR technology in order to prepare for future SMR deployment in Canada.
“GE Hitachi values diversity in our workforce, including equal employment opportunities for Indigenous people,” said Lisa McBride, Canada SMR Country Leader for GEH. “We are working to develop a highly-skilled workforce to serve the current nuclear fleet, with the potential opportunity to service the BWRX-300 SMR fleet when deployed in Canada.”
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