back to article EU flags up wrinkly nuke-boffin knowhow loss threat

The assembled member states of the European Union have warned that the continent's nuclear boffins are getting old, and not being replaced fast enough. The EU says this problem should be addressed by all nations - even those that don't fancy nuclear power - training more specialists and allowing them to move about more freely, …

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  1. Horridbloke

    What do you expect?

    Why would any go into that line of work when for the last twenty years they'd do better getting an unskilled job such as being an estate agent?

    Oh well, there will be plenty of estate agents looking to retrain soon.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Horridbloke

    Don't worry, according to my mate Dubya, estate agents have had a rough time in Iran for the last twenty years and have all retrained as nuclear scientists already.

    Just let Iran into the EU and then we can swap our estate agents for their scientists.

    Sorted.

  3. Daniel Garcia
    Happy

    Need Physicist????

    Gimme 50K+ per annum plus accomodation and i am going to the nuclear power station that you prefer in europe to work next year.

    No joking.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    They'll come back

    Most of these guys were sitting on CDS and CDO desks planning and modelling the sub-prime crisis, credit crunch, etc. Now that quite a few of them are sacked, we might see them return home to the nuclear stations.

    Oh wait! The quant funds are doing well apparently...

    Mine's the glow-in-the-dark one.

  5. Luther Blissett

    @whoever crimped out that title

    A bot of a strain I suspect. A couple of senna pods and half a bottle of castor oil should do it by tomorrow.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ... welcome our new Morlock underlords.

    Its not 1984, its the Time Machine. The ongoing ensupidation[1] is producing an Eloi like society which cannot, metaphorically, tie its own shoe laces[2]. We are drowning in delusional x-factor muppets and ex-estate agents, meanwhile the skills go elsewhere. The last one left will not even be able to figure out how to turn off the lights.

    [1] Yes, I know. Rolls of the tongue in such a nice way though.

    [2] You were going to say something smart about Velcro(tm).

  7. David Pollard

    Typical.

    A bunch of politicians has finally realised that "additional efforts are needed ... giving a new impetus to mathematics, physics and chemistry teaching at every level."

    Despite having presided over the decline of the nuclear industry (France excepted) and its central role in the founding of the EEC (remember the Euratom treaty?) they have the gall to expect us to believe they are competent to manage our affairs.

    What's sad is that technologies which can enable safe and efficient use of uranium and thorium have been known for a decade or two (Gen-IV), as have methods to denature the long-lived components of nuclear waste (search [partition and transmutation]).

    Science teaching is not the only area which needs attention. What's needed is that politicians should have some understanding of it too.

  8. amanfromMars Silver badge

    Parasitic Worms

    "Science teaching is not the only area which needs attention. What's needed is that politicians should have some understanding of it too."

    So we are condemned to live in old technology because the purse strings are opened and closed by the less than well enough/fully educated. Surely there's bound to be a whole host of quangoes who would profess to provide insight into the Next Best Thing since sliced bread for Public Grant of Funding? Why complicate IT with a dumb Loan Arrangement, for the Capital always gets Repaid Directly Indirectly to Prime Principal Source/Feed. Who needs the Waste Fat in the Middle Creaming off Interest and adding Expenses

  9. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    Hello, my name is Al Kyeder....

    ... I'd like to learn all about you nuclear systems, please!

    Mines the one with the lead lining...

  10. xjy
    Paris Hilton

    Heading of the year!

    I'm with Luther B.

    This must be one of the entrants for heading of the year, and it's a rough tough field :-) Almost like an Xmas prezzie.

    (Paris cos she's good at giving head too)

  11. RW

    Training? Or Education?

    You can train a monkey, but you can't educate him.

    This article inspires me with a nasty sense of schadenfreude. Dear, dear NuLabour and its idea that real education is filthy anti-egalitarian elitist nonsense improper in a truly proletarian society...well, they've sown the wind and in not much longer will be reaping the whirlwind.

    You can't even design a decent sewage treatment plant without suitably educated boffins — and they need lots of post-educaction experience to properly ripen.

    Sometimes I'm glad I'm inching into old-fart-hood, and won't be around when things start to get truly dire.

  12. Michael
    Joke

    @david pollard

    Shhh! Don't mention transmutation.... they'll think we're alchemists!

  13. Kevin Whitefoot
    Alien

    @amanfrommars

    You are an impostor sir, what have you done with our favourite alien? Every word made perfect sense!

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