Shortfall in young engineers threatens nuclear renaissance

Between 2012 and 2022, the number of students graduating with bachelor’s degrees in nuclear engineering in the U.S. fell by 25%, according to the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, with the class of 2022 seeing only 454 students graduate with a degree in the field.

At the same time, the nuclear industry is facing a maturing workforce, with 17% of workers in the industry over the age of 55 and 60% aged between 30 and 54, according to the 2024 U.S. Energy and Employment report. The report also highlighted that 23% of workers were aged under 30, compared with 29% for other energy workers.

As demand for nuclear energy rises, that’s a problem. “We need nuclear expertise in order to combat climate change," said Sara Pozzi, professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences at the University of Michigan. “We are at a crucial point where we need to produce the new generation of nuclear experts so that they can work with the older generation and learn from them."

Nuclear energy is touted as one of the key ways of producing carbon-free energy. Forecasts from the Breakthrough Institute, a California-based environmental policy research center, see nuclear energy making up 10% to 15% of the global energy mix by 2050.

To meet this demand, the global nuclear workforce will need to rise to four million people. In the U.S., that figure currently stands at about 68,000 people, but would need to grow to more than 200,000, based on an Energy Department forecast that sees nuclear power tripling by 2050.

“The conversation around nuclear has done a complete 180 in the last 10 years," said John Kotek, senior vice president of policy development and public affairs at the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Energy Institute.

“There were dozens of nuclear plants that were at risk of closing. Now what has happened in the last half a dozen years is more companies started to demand clean electricity and individual states are demanding 100% clean energy by 2050. So the companies that were thinking of shutting down are now extending their nuclear licenses and building new plants," said Kotek.

But the nuclear industry has an image problem, according to those working within it. A history of disasters such as Three Mile Island in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011 has meant that fewer engineers have sought a career within its ranks.

“One of the things I get with older people when I say I’m studying nuclear is ‘Please don’t make an atomic bomb or be the next Oppenheimer,’" said Zoe Fisher, a Ph.D. candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She said that for people over the age of 30, public disasters and the link to weapons has led to a growing mistrust of the industry.

However, according to Fisher, among younger people that attitude is changing. Increasingly, they see nuclear energy as key to cutting carbon emissions and fighting climate change. A recent survey of Generation Z voters found that four in five supported “new generation" nuclear energy to supplement renewable power sources.

Fisher said that being able to fight climate change firsthand is one of the key reasons why she wanted to make a career in nuclear. “It’s a cool thing to study that is going to have a lot of broader impacts."

Another benefit for young people entering the industry is that compared with similar roles, getting a job is easier because of rising demand for workers and a shortfall in expertise.

“Every nuclear engineer that graduates from a program has a job unless they choose to switch industries after graduation," said Adam Stein, director of the nuclear energy innovation program at the Breakthrough Institute. “But with the industry stagnant for decades, you only had to replace the number of engineers that retired. Now, we’re moving into a growth basis—that requires a rapid increase."

Pay also is another attractive factor for those entering the industry. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that compared with other engineering degrees, pay in the nuclear industry is only second to petroleum engineering, with the median salary at $125,460.

Advances in nuclear science are also an attraction for the technically minded. Developments in areas such as small modular reactors, otherwise known as SMRs, are luring young talent, while startups around nuclear fusion, which involves fusing parts of atoms rather than splitting them to produce energy, are also attracting recruits from fields such as IT and computer science.

“We are in a lucky spot at this moment," said Francesco Sciortino, chief executive and co-founder of Proxima Fusion, a fusion-energy startup based in Munich. Sciortino said that because of the high levels of funding, and the opportunity to build a next-generation technology, attracting top talent hasn’t been a problem for his company. Hires have included engineers from entities such as McLaren Racing, Google’s X Development and Harvard University.

Some within the industry think that nuclear fusion could be achieved within a decade. In the U.S., Commonwealth Fusion Systems has landed billions in funding from the likes of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, betting that the technology could be achieved in the not-so-distant future. Industrial players like Nucor are also betting fusion could be the way to produce low-carbon steel, with the company investing $35 million in Helion Energy, a startup backed by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman.

“Most of the people that have nuclear engineering training currently leave the field. In our hiring process we have people who left the field and then figured that nuclear engineering now makes some sense," said Sciortino. “Now there is an opportunity for them to come back."

Demand for energy from artificial intelligence too is further adding to the equation with companies like Microsoft and Amazon.com eyeing the energy source to power their ever growing data centers.

The NEI, says that it’s been working with labor unions to advertise the pros of nuclear jobs, saying that they are a safe long-term bet for people wanting a stable career.

“What people find here is a facility in which I can make a career," said Kotek. “There’s a degree of stability for people who want to put down roots, have a career and be a part of a community long term." He added that the NEI has worked with the “Helmets to Hardhats" program aimed at recruiting former military professionals.

Still, diversifying talent is a key issue. The industry remains male-dominated, with just over a third of the nuclear workforce in the U.S. women. Fisher said that at a conference where she had been presenting, people confused her as waitstaff, handing her glasses when she was due to present on stage. “That was a brutal awakening," she said.

“As with any engineering discipline it’s male-dominated," said the University of Michigan’s Pozzi. However, her department has been working with elementary, middle and high schools to expose them to nuclear sciences, advertising the discipline to students. “We want to reach a diverse group of students and not exclude students of particular identities from these types of courses."

Write to Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com