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NN Asks: Is the U.S. ready for nuclear construction to accelerate?

June 29, 2026, 3:03PMNuclear NewsCraig Stover

Craig Stover

Yes, but . . .

The United States is better positioned today for nuclear construction than it has been in decades. Some of that comes from the experience gained at Vogtle and V.C. Summer. I was part of the team that helped start the V.C. Summer project in 2008, and at that time we were trying to build a nuclear construction workforce from scratch. We learned a lot through that effort, and many of those lessons learned have since been studied, documented, and shared.

The nuclear industry is also benefiting from the wave of investment that started growing around 2020. Over the last five or six years, there has been a serious effort across the country to get ready for new nuclear builds. The U.S. government and the private sector are investing billions of dollars in new nuclear. Much of that work is happening before widespread commercial deployment contracts are signed. This is real, and we need to prepare.

But being better positioned is not the same as being ready to build on the scale the country needs.

One or two nuclear projects are a huge challenge on their own. Each one takes thousands of people to complete. Trying to execute a dozen projects across the country in the same timeframe is something else entirely. What we are talking about is an unprecedented build-out of new nuclear power plants in a short period of time. We are not ready for that today.

The biggest vulnerability is craft labor. There can be progress on all fronts—design, planning, and supply chain—but nothing can be built if there aren’t enough skilled people in the field. The challenge is that this workforce pipeline cannot wait until contracts are signed. By then, it may already be too late. Also, we are not the only industry competing for these trades.

If we want to separate the noise from reality, we need to follow the money. Are real craft training programs being created? Are states and industry making the investments needed to build the pipeline now, not later? This is a once-in-a-generation national construction effort. We can do this, but we must get ready now. If we do not build the workforce now, nothing gets built.

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craft laborlessons learnedvc summervogtle
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