Emily Baird

After graduating, I won a place on a training scheme with Magnox, a nuclear decommissioning company.

My first placement was at Wylfa Power Station (Anglesey), where I got to experience an outage. Outages happen when a power station switches off a reactor for essential maintenance to occur. This is a very busy and exciting time as there is lots of work going, and several hundred people on Site.

I then moved to Hinkley Point A (Somerset), where I worked on various decommissioning projects across Site. These included giving radiation protection advice for civil inspections, decontamination and de-planting activities.

Currently I am working at Trawsfynydd Site (Snowdonia), where I am working towards completing my portfolio for my final interview to become an Accredited Health Physicist.

Tailor your career path

I have really enjoyed my time with Magnox; I have met a lot of people within the industry, and have travelled to most areas of the country during my time here. I like the flexibility of the scheme, as I am able to pick and choose what opportunities I get involved in, which I can tailor to my own career path.

If I was to give some advice to anyone starting in the nuclear industry, it is to get involved with everything that is offered to you. And network, network, network!