International Women's Week: Radioactivity attracted Matilda to nuclear power
Matilda Hjelmberg works
with Vattenfall’s nuclear power operations and lives with her family in
the countryside outside of Gothenburg. The office is located in the city,
but because many of her colleagues are currently spread across large parts
of Sweden she often works from home and attends meetings via Teams:
“I am fascinated
by radioactivity and ionised radiation! It is something that you
can neither see, hear nor feel but that can have such tremendous effects,
not to mention nuclear fission that can produce these enormous quantities
of energy. I am interested in environmental and energy issues and the connection
between them, such as the role of nuclear power in electrification of society.
The discussion has grown tremendously over the past year.
I am an M.Sc. in
Industrial Engineering and Management. I studied chemical engineering
at Chalmers University and chose to get a Master’s degree in energy and
the environment with courses in nuclear power. It was when I did my master
thesis at Ringhals Nuclear Power Plant in southwestern Sweden that I felt
that it was nuclear power I wanted to continue working with. So, I applied
and got a spot on Vattenfall’s international trainee programme in 2010
and since then I have been at Ringhals and Vattenfall. I have worked as
a development engineer, radio physicist, specialist within waste and licensing
issues and as a department manager. I have been able to try many different
things. I have worked with safety audits, radioactivity and disaster recovery.
I have been the head of fuel charging for nuclear fuel and I have been
involved with decommissioning and final repository.
For the past couple
years I have been in a business unit called Fuel, Engineering
& Projects where I have been responsible for the permit process associated
with new nuclear power plants. Since last summer, Vattenfall has been investigating
the construction of small modular reactors, SMR, at Ringhals. It really
is a current topic and, in the autumn, when the new Swedish Government
took office it was the first time that I heard my own work area mentioned
in a government policy statement! It really feels huge and shows how important
our work is.
When the business
unit was reorganised several years ago it proved to be difficult
to get women to apply for management positions, so management took the
initiative to create a network for female employees within three business
units called Q Network, which I am chair of.
Today we are one-third
women within the business unit and in managerial roles it is very
equal, so quite a lot has happened. But there are few of us women in senior
specialist and project manager roles, and within several subject areas
there are still few women who apply. Q Network arranges highly appreciated
networking meetings for female employees and supports management in the
strategic equality work. Among the things we do is play a role in reviewing
advertisements within male dominated areas to get more female applicants.
Research shows that men generally apply if they know that they fulfil half
of the criteria for what they are applying for, while women want to live
up to all the requirements in the advertisement. Then it can be important
to look at what is actually required for the position and what is rather
merited experience.
In Q Network we
have a very good dialogue with management and HR with respect
to these issues and we find that it is appreciated. I am glad that I work
at a company who takes equality matters seriously, it is important to me.”