Britain’s main nuclear safety regulator is struggling to halt a staff exodus that threatens to delay construction of a new generation of nuclear power stations. A brain drain of senior inspectors and engineers has left the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) so seriously understaffed that only 16 people are overseeing a highly complex approval process for new nuclear reactors that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says requires at least 40 people. /The Times /has learnt that the Government is so concerned about the situation in the NII that it is considering radical changes, including inflation-breaching pay increases, moving the agency from its base in Bootle, Merseyside, and introducing a new corporate governance structure. “They are trying to stop the brain drain,” one nuclear industry executive said.
Times 22nd July 2008
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/utilities/article4375481.ece