As the U.S. faces increasing demands for energy, the federal government has poured funding and regulatory support into the nuclear industry with the hopes of accelerating the development and deployment of new technologies. But an aging nuclear power workforce and shortage of qualified employees could pose a challenge to those goals.
“Lowering energy costs for Americans means developing and deploying available clean energy while supporting the reliability of our nation’s electrical grid. That includes nuclear energy,” Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said in an email Tuesday. “We need to address supply chain and workforce constraints by expanding opportunities for apprenticeships in the skilled trades and supporting our universities’ science and engineering departments.”
Nuclear energy has been a Trump administration priority since early this year. In February, his energy secretary, Chris Wright, issued a secretarial order declaring an “American nuclear renaissance.”
