World Undergoes A Nuclear Renaissance

Here is the South African perspective of the world's nuclear renaissance. They plan on building large nuclear power plants by 2025. They will also build a few additional pebble-bed modular reactors (PBMRs) in a few years. John McCain says he wants to see 45 new nuclear plants built by 2030.

Where will the industry get the skilled workers to construct and operate these plants? We are seeing an increase in undergraduate and graduate nuclear engineering degrees in the USA in the last few years.

About 35% of the current nuclear power workforce will retire in the next 5 years. There are currently about 8000 nuclear trained engineers. By 2020 we will need about 12,500 and about 21,500 in 2050.