The last time America built nuclear plants at scale, the workers who learned the trade on those job sites are now retiring. The industry kept their expertise for decades. It won’t be able to keep it much longer.
In our 50+ years supplying nuclear facilities, we’ve watched the U.S. nuclear sector enter its most ambitious expansion in a generation with existing plants extending operations, shuttered reactors being reconsidered for restart, advanced designs moving toward commercial deployment. The growth is being driven by several factors including rising electricity demand from data centers and domestic manufacturing, renewed support for carbon-free baseload power, and federal policy aimed at expanding U.S. nuclear capacity by mid-century.
The 2025 U.S. Energy & Employment Report from the DOE found that 63% of manufacturing employers in nuclear power generation described hiring as “very difficult,” which is more than any other single electric power generation sector.
Over 80% of employers across nuclear construction, manufacturing, and utilities reported at least some difficulty finding qualified workers. A USC Marshall School of Business analysis commissioned by the National Center for Energy Analytics projects that skilled trades alone could nearly double their workforce requirements by 2030, from roughly 8,200–9,100 FTEs today to as many as 21,500 as new construction ramps up.
So which skills will matter most and why?
1. Precision Skilled Trades
Electricians, pipe fitters, ASME code welders, ironworkers, millwrights, riggers, and mechanical technicians are the fastest-growing workforce category by a wide margin.
During active construction phases, skilled trades represent 50–60% of the total workforce on site. Demand is expected to climb sharply as new reactor construction accelerates through the end of the decade.
The catch is that these roles aren’t simply transferable from other industries. NQA-1 certification requirements create real supply constraints. The industry isn’t just looking for people who can do the work, it’s looking for people who can do it right, every time, under documentation and oversight requirements that don’t exist at the same level anywhere else.
2. Quality Assurance and Nuclear Compliance
As more manufacturers and contractors enter the nuclear supply chain, the margin for error doesn’t change, which is exactly why QA expertise is becoming a bottleneck.
Engineers, inspectors, and technicians who understand NQA-1 standards, traceability requirements, configuration management, and nuclear quality programs will be increasingly hard to find.
But it’s not just about knowing the standards, it’s about having internalized the discipline of working within them. Following established procedures, maintaining traceability, documenting work accurately: these habits separate candidates who understand nuclear from candidates who are still learning what nuclear actually requires.
3. Mechanical, Electrical, and Controls Engineering
The next generation of nuclear facilities won’t look exactly like the last one. Advanced reactor designs and modernization projects are bringing digital control systems and automation into environments where the stakes of getting it wrong are exceptionally high.
The USC Marshall analysis projects engineering FTEs rising from 6,900–7,400 in 2025 to 9,200–10,400 by 2030. Nuclear engineers are already the highest paid occupation in the sector with a median salary of $127,520 according to the DOE, yet only around 15,400 are currently employed nationally, a figure that would need to roughly double under current expansion plans.
What will set the best candidates apart is the ability to bridge traditional engineering disciplines with newer technologies. It’s not just knowing the systems, but understanding why they’re designed the way they are.
4. Maintenance and Reliability
Operating plants are extending their service lives. That decision puts a premium on the professionals who can keep aging equipment performing reliably without compromising safety.
Workers who understand predictive maintenance, equipment reliability, outage planning, inspections, and lifecycle management are actively managing risk and protecting plant performance. These are reliability-focused careers, and they’re becoming harder to fill as experienced practitioners retire.
5. The Ability to Work Across Disciplines
Nuclear projects rely on close collaboration between engineers, skilled trades, quality professionals, manufacturers, inspectors, and plant operators. As projects grow in size and complexity, the ability to communicate and coordinate across disciplines will become an increasingly valuable skill.
What makes this particularly demanding in the nuclear space is the regulatory overlay. A miscommunication that might be a minor setback in another industry can trigger a nonconformance report, a work stoppage, or a safety review.
Professionals who have learned to communicate clearly across disciplines and to understand enough of their colleagues’ work to flag problems early will be increasingly valuable as projects grow in scale and complexity.
The Experience Gap Is Real
The industry is investing in new pipelines like university programs, trade school partnerships, apprenticeships, and DOE-backed initiatives including $49M recently awarded to enhance nuclear safety training. That work is necessary and overdue but doesn’t replace experience.
The knowledge embedded in a veteran millwright or a QA engineer who has spent years inside a nuclear facility isn’t easily transferred, and it can’t be replicated on a timeline. For the next several years, the workers who already carry that knowledge are among the industry’s most valuable assets.
For more than 50 years, American Crane & Equipment Corporation has built NQA-1-compliant overhead crane and hoist systems for nuclear facilities working alongside the skilled trades, engineers, and QA professionals who make these projects possible. We understand that the compliance culture required to manufacture and deliver nuclear-grade equipment is the same culture the industry needs across its entire supply chain. As the workforce grows through 2030 and beyond, that shared commitment to quality at every stage, from every partner, will matter more than ever.
Wondering where your organization stands? Take our 2-minute Nuclear Workforce Readiness Assessment below.