NSI report addresses supply chain bottlenecks

Workforce issues: According to the report, one of the key constraints on the ability to deliver new projects at scale is the availability of workers. Beyond the commonly cited shortages in construction craft labor, the report also identified a critical lack of nuclear-qualified machinists, welders, inspectors, nondestructive examination specialists, and project managers.

This cross-sectional shortage is exacerbated by several factors. An already limited number of potential entrants into the nuclear workforce travel through a “leaky pipeline” before gaining the requisite skills to join the industry. Intense competition from other industries, low apprentice wages, and childcare difficulties are all cited as reasons individuals drop out prior to certification.

Compounding this issue is a “looming retirement wave” and a federal push for 300 GW of new nuclear capacity by 2050. In response, the report recommends “dramatic investments” in more centralized and standardized training and education at the local, state, and federal levels, citing the initial buildout of the nuclear workforce in the 1950s and ’60s as a potential template for future efforts.

“Chicken-and-egg” problem: The report characterizes another roadblock to new development as a “chicken-and-egg” problem. Suppliers hesitate to expand capacity and develop the supply chain without demand, while customers hesitate to place orders without a developed supply chain in place. This deadlock creates significant market paralysis.

The report suggests that an order book approach to new projects may have the potential to resolve both sides of the deadlock.

For suppliers, a multiunit order book (typically ranging from 10–30 reactors) creates a durable demand signal that would justify the cost of new expansion. For customers, it both lowers cost and disperses risk.

This concept has precedent in other industries (such as automaker consortia forming order books for battery minerals), and it also has some limited precedent in the nuclear industry. Orders for many major components and bulk materials for the four AP1000s at Vogtle and V.C. Summer were placed simultaneously. This created significant economies of scale, reducing the price on certain key materials for the projects as much as 25–30 percent, according to the report.

This is not the first time the NSI has championed an order book approach to new nuclear projects. Earlier this year, it received $3.5 million in funding from the Bezos Earth Fund to facilitate a U.S. order book for “new reactor builds of mature design.” Assumedly, part of this funding was used to commission the current report.

At the time, NSI executive director Steve Comello said, “An order book can create the predictability needed to strengthen supply chains, grow a skilled workforce, and reduce the delays and cost overruns that have historically slowed progress.” Effectively, the NSI holds that an order book based on a proven Gen III+ design can work to simultaneously resolve many of the present bottlenecks in the industry.

(Notably, the Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Advanced Nuclear report, released by the Department of Energy in 2023 and updated in 2024 and early 2025, made a similar call for an order book for new reactors. The report is no longer available on the DOE website.)

Looking at Gen IV: Citing multifaceted and wide-spanning cost, fuel, supply-chain readiness, workforce, and reliability concerns, the report recommends that new projects first focus on Gen III+ LWR technologies. Specifically, the report considers the Westinghouse AP1000, the Holtec SMR-300, and the GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300.

To rebuild the U.S. nuclear industry, the report recommends a focus on these more established designs before the deployment of Gen IV designs begins in earnest. However, once the industry is prepared for Gen IV deployment, the NSI has prepared a new tool to compare the benefits and drawbacks of the ever-increasing number of reactor designs.

This Reactor Selection Tool compares 36 reactor designs across eight metrics on a five-point scale: deployment timescale, overnight cost, operational cost, cost predictability, security, safety, spent fuel and radioactive waste management, and supply chain. Each of these metrics is calculated by a series of differently weighted submetrics. On safety, for example, a developer’s regulatory engagement on a proposed reactor’s safety case, shutdown mechanism, fuel, pressure and containment, passive heat removal, and coolant reactivity are all considered.

While the NSI is cautious on the viability of near-term Gen IV deployment, it nevertheless has provided a new way to understand, at a glance, the critical differences between the diversity of designs emerging in the industry today.