Nuclear industry looks to Navy to fill worker shortage via Atlanta Business News

It’s a “brain drain” of sorts, but it’s one the nuclear power industry has been preparing for.

Of the roughly 120,000 workers in the nuclear power industry, nearly 38 percent are eligible to retire within the next five years.

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One answer for finding trained workers has been the Navy. About 11 percent of employees at the company’s parent, Atlanta-based Southern Co., are military veterans. For the nuclear unit, that percentage is higher, Kuczynski said.

“We rely much more heavily on nuclear skills,” said Kuczynski, in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

That Navy-to-nuclear career pipeline was made formal Wednesday after industry leaders met at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations in Atlanta. Southern Nuclear was one of a dozen nuclear power companies to agree to hire retiring naval personnel with nuclear training. The agreement also expands what’s known as the Nuclear Uniform Curriculum Program to let the Navy recruit from 38 community colleges across the country.

The idea of the public-private partnership is threefold. Navy veterans with nuclear training have a clear path to a new job. Utilities with nuclear plants have easy access to trained workers. And students at technical schools can start on a career in the nuclear industry by joining the Navy.

The agreement formalizes what the industry has been doing for years, said Stephen Trautman, deputy director of the U.S. Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program.

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