The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy awarded $49.7 million across 10 university-led projects seeking to grow nuclear safety training.
DOE’s new Nuclear Reactor Safety Training and Workforce Development Program will provide up to $100 million in funding to support nuclear workforce development. All the selected university-led projects are responsible for a 50% cost share, DOE said.
In a Tuesday press release, DOE said it expects the nuclear energy sector to grow over the next 25 years and this training effort should help address the needs of the incoming workforce.
The $49.7 million award was split into two categories: demonstration and implementation and training needs and curriculum. For the demonstration and implementation of the nuclear safety curricula and training, DOE awarded:
- The Consortium for Reactor Safety Training, led by North Carolina State University. The university was awarded $18.3 million to develop strategies to get local communities involved with conversations about nuclear power.
- The Great Lakes Partnership to Enhance the Nuclear Workforce, led by University of Toledo. The university was awarded $19.2 million to improve the safety training pipelines for the light-water reactor workforce, bring in more workers and establish industry recognized nuclear reactor safety certifications.
The other portion of the DOE award money was competitively given to other universities to build up their curriculum to focus on developing more workers in the nuclear sector. Under this section, the training needs and curriculum development, DOE awarded:
- Maine Maritime Academy ($1 million)
- Pennsylvania State University ($2 million)
- Purdue University ($1.6 million)
- The RENEW partnership program led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ($1.1 million)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ($1.5 million)
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln ($1.4 million)
- University of Tennessee at Knoxville ($2 million)
- Washington State University ($1.4 million)
The second round of funding is expected to be announced later this year.
Recruiting young talent into the nuclear industry has been a top priority for the sector in recent years as many seasoned hands with decades of experience are retiring.
According to the 2025 U.S. Energy and Employment report, the nuclear workforce trends to be older than the collective energy workforce as 59% of the workforce is between the ages of 30 and 54, which is 7% higher than the energy workforce average (52%) and 5% higher than the national workforce average (54%).
“More nuclear energy means more nuclear energy jobs,” Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Crosscuts Michelle Scott said. “Today’s awards help ensure that the next generation of nuclear energy workers receive robust and rigorous training that promotes the highest standards of safety.”