A Labor Shortage for U.S. Nuclear Plants

It took Japan’s Fukushima disaster to make nuclear energy interesting to students in Karl Craddock’s advanced placement chemistry class at William Fremd High School in Palatine, Ill. Too bad the buzz was about radiation plumes, iodine pills, and potential deadly threats at nuclear power plants that generate more than half the electricity in Illinois. It wasn’t the sort of talk to get kids excited about a career in nuclear energy. “It doesn’t have the cool factor right now, that’s for sure,” says Craddock, who has taught science at the suburban Chicago high school for seven years.

Whether Fukushima, where the world watched three nuclear reactors begin to melt down following an earthquake and tsunami in March, marked the end of America’s nuclear renaissance remains to be seen. There is little doubt, though, that it has cast a pall over the industry’s efforts to recruit a new generation of engineers, technicians, and decontamination specialists just as nuclear plant operators face an unprecedented labor crunch.