Defence personnel and public servants interested in nuclear science are being strongly encouraged to upskill and study atomic matters to help build a sovereign nuclear industry. The invitation comes on the back of the AUKUS agreement and the decision for Australia to procure nuclear-powered submarines.
The Department of Defence has started promoting recently announced nuclear scholarships, saying ADF and APS personnel can apply for a Defence Master’s Sponsorship to study for a Master’s of Nuclear Science at the Australian National University or Master’s of Nuclear Engineering at the University of NSW.
The scholarships are being pushed by the Nuclear Powered Submarine Taskforce (NPSTF), which is charged with creating “education and skilling pathways” to underpin the acquisition and sustainment of nuclear-powered submarines and “the greater Australian nuclear enterprise.”
Having avoided the nuclear option for more than three-quarters of a century, Australia is starting from well behind in the nuclear game, with most of our talent being located overseas because there has been no local industry here to create employment (apart from medical science).
Today marks the first anniversary of the announcement of AUKUS and the switch to nuclear subs that ruptured relations with France after the cancellation of a diesel submarine deal with that nation.
The Navy is keen to show progress.
Chief of the NPSTF vice admiral Jonathan Mead said the body was now “two-thirds of the way through selecting the optimal pathway to a nuclear-powered submarine for Australia with its AUKUS partners” — or picking a boat.
“We have reached a point where we now have a substantial amount of information available to us and we are focused on our analysis and the recommendations we intend to make to government,” vice admiral Mead said.
“The work we have underway with our AUKUS partners is more than just identifying which boat we will acquire. We are also focused on ensuring Australia has a workforce with the necessary skills to build, operate and sustain conventionally-armed nuclear-powered submarines.
Vice admiral Mead said it was “critically important…to cultivate career pathways across the nuclear-powered submarine enterprise — not just in Defence.”
To get there, Defence and industry will soon be promoting a range of personnel-exchange opportunities with the US and UK to get across how the subs and their supporting industries function.
Defence is hoping those kinds of opportunities will now encourage the best and brightest to apply, with Defence’s incoming brief to Minister Richard Marles revealing attracting personnel was a first-order challenge for the Navy against other industries paying more.
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Australia to get nuclear subs in three-way deal with US and UK
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