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Q: You have served on ships and in the shipping industry with great distinction for over 30 years. What do you regard as your biggest achievement?
Achievements vary at different times in your career but the team successes of completing the first HLW and MOX shipments to Japan are very special to me, as was the achievement of securing the reinvestment in ships and flasks that will take PNTL into the 2020s. Of course, my first career goal was to become a sea captain and, having achieved that, I wanted to try a management role ashore. I served at a number of management grades within BNFL until eventually becoming Head of International Transport in 2002.
Looking back on my career with PNTL and BNFL, it was a very special experience to be captain on the maiden voyage of the Pacific Pintail and I am proud that I was the first member of the sea staff to become a director of PNTL. More recently I was elected to the Fellowship of the Nautical Institute, which is something I view as a recognition of the achievements of everybody involved in PNTL’s shipments.
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Captain Malcolm Miller
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Q: When you look at cadets who are just starting out, what differences do you see today compared to when you embarked on your career at sea?
When I started going to sea in the mid-1960s, ships were not so automated or high-tech. Crewing levels were very much higher and the work was more labour intensive. There was more focus on seamanship and the understanding of basic navigation. Ships stayed in port for long periods of time and you got to see the country you were visiting. There was a strict hierarchy within the ship.
Nowadays communication is so instant and efficiencies have been brought in to reduce costs at all levels. Technology has advanced into unmanned engine rooms and reduced manning in all departments. Hierarchy within the ship is more relaxed and flexible due to the smaller numbers of crew and the better basic educational standards. Safety is much more important than it was in years gone by and there is a now a strong focus on taking good care of the marine environment.
Q: What advice would you give today's cadets?
In the future there will be many opportunities for well-trained deck and engineer officers. The options vary from staying at sea and becoming Captains or Chief Engineers, going into shore management, working for the regulators, becoming expert advisors to legal firms, joining marine insurers and many other parts of the marine supply chain. In recent years, this pool of expert mariners has been diluted and so it will become a premium resource in the future.
Q What was the attraction of joining PNTL in 1983?
In the early 1980s there was a huge contraction of the UK merchant fleet and jobs were scarce. Shipping companies were flagging out to flags of convenience and UK crews were too expensive. In this climate it was great to find a business that planned for investment and crewing requirements on a very long-term basis and an organisation that really cared about safety and quality rather than just taking a “Get it there!” approach.
Q: How did you find the transition to working in an office after spending so many years at sea?
The transition for me was huge! I had never worked in an office – or with women! A ship has an easily understood hierarchy but when you go into an office the lines become more blurred. On a ship the captain is always there, whereas in the office the boss may be out for days and sometimes is not easily contactable. Departments ashore can become much more autonomous unless senior management keeps a tight grip. Therefore the system has to cater for the differences. On a ship it is 7 days a week with a break at the end of the tour whilst in the office it is a 5 day week with weekends, public holidays and annual vacation time.
Q: How does PNTL differ from the other shippers you have worked for?
In shipping the main asset an owner has is the ship, which must pay for itself through carrying cargoes. The nuclear industry is a larger operation, with a whole fuel cycle, and nuclear transport is just one of its components. The transport is particularly important because it is the part that takes place outside of a licensed site and is subject to many perceptions and, at times, direct action. However, the biggest investment of the nuclear cycle is not the ships or the vehicles but the reactors and reprocessing sites. Cost and efficiency is important in transport but this has also to be balanced with safety and quality of service. To the outside world safety and quality are clearly what is important.
Q: What factors do you think will impact how successful the nuclear industry can be in the next ten or twenty years?
The main issues will be whether the industry can react fast enough to a changing market, whether governments can react quickly enough to satisfy world demand for power against a background of global warming and whether the public will come to trust the nuclear industry on safety and waste management and support new build. Globally, the increasing demand for power in China and India provides a big opportunity and GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership) promises to deliver a system for the world’s power and waste management needs. None of this can be achieved in isolation. They must be parts of a coordinated approach by all the stakeholders.
Q: How has PNTL changed over the years?
PNTL has ‘cycled’ through its life so far. In the 1970s and 1980s it was boom time with huge investment in ships and flasks. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the start of a tail off in spent fuel shipments. From the mid-1990s to 2000 it was waste return and MOX shipments. The start of this decade was characterised by the decommissioning of ships and flasks together with reductions in PNTL crew numbers. Now, from 2005 onwards we are in a reinvestment and expansion phase that will take the fleet into the 2020s. Throughout these cycles, PNTL has maintained a high standard of service and has always done what has been asked of it.
Q: Do you think things have changed for the better for shippers over the last 30 years?
Generally shipping is more reliable because of, for example, containerisation and the growth of efficient and well-designed distribution systems that were not there in the 1960s. The bulk markets are still prone to supply and demand, not just of the commodity itself but also the type of tonnage available (investment), but overall I would have to say that things have improved greatly.
Q: What are some of the exciting changes underway in shipping?
For shippers of nuclear material, the most important development could be the GNEP initiative from the US, which on the face of it covers very high level nuclear policy. The implications for the volume of nuclear materials to be transported worldwide is immense. In more general terms, there is the fantastic change that the Panama Canal has undergone since 2000. The Canal was very well managed when it was under US control. Since control transferred to Panama there have been a whole series of improvements and investment is taking place to expand its capacity. The country of Panama is also developing at a fast rate.
Q: How important do you think strategic planning has become for shippers?
Strategic planning has always been important for the nuclear industry. It was one of the attributes that most impressed me when I joined. For example, within PNTL there is a plan that goes out until 2025 and beyond in order to cater to the market of spent fuel, waste products and MOX fuels. Within that planning cycle you must also take into account the stakeholders views, which will vary with time. This type of planning is becoming more and more important to shippers in general. Shippers must have an all encompassing plan that takes account of many factors – not just the profit and loss situation. And, in order to be responsive in the market, you need to be able to gauge the changing nuances that will require modifications to any strategic plan.
Q: What will you miss most now that you have retired as General Manager of PNTL?
The daily business of dealing with the shareholders. PNTL is a UK registered shipping company but the shareholders are British, Japanese and French. All three cultures vary and at times it can be a mini UN organisation! Also I will miss the interaction with outside stakeholders, nationally and internationally. And, of course, I will miss the interaction with the transport team in the office and on the ships – it’s people that make any system work properly and safely and I was privileged to lead a wonderful team.
September 2007
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