Advanced Nuclear Workforce Development

A recent report by the US Department of Energy, "Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Advanced Nuclear", estimates that to achieve US decarbonization targets by 2050, 200GW of nuclear power will be required at a rate of 13GW of new nuclear capacity per year. This will require 375,000 nuclear industry workers for construction, manufacturing, and operations, which is a 275% increase from the roughly 100,000 workers today. Furthermore, a recent consensus study by the National Academies of Science, "Laying the Foundations for New and Advanced Nuclear Reactors in the United States," states that specialized advanced reactor training is required to address the shortfall in nuclear expertise for the new and emerging market demands and deployment scenarios for long term economic growth and decarbonization. These future deployment scenarios include industrial applications, data centers, micro-grids, desalination, and integrated energy systems. The advanced (and current) nuclear industry requires a widespread collaboration effort from K-12 education through undergraduate, post-graduate, trade, vendor, and utility organizations to provide a successful pipeline to power a nuclear future. There are growing efforts by different groups to prepare for training the future workforce and educate the public in conjunction with or ahead of the development and deployment of advanced nuclear plants. This panel will discuss some of their efforts and progress.