Peak Nano recently partnered with Ignition Research and the CleanTech Alliance at Seattle Fusion Week to estimate the number of jobs Fusion Energy would create over the next twenty-five years (the report is forthcoming). This is a lengthy blog, so we put the final answer up front: We expect that number to be over 1,000,000+ jobs. Please take the time to read how we got here.
Fortunately, we have historical data from nuclear, wind, and solar energy to help build a “fusion energy jobs model.” In the chart below from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), we can see the growth in jobs for solar jobs and various other energy sources.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in its National Wind Energy Workforce Assessment, predicts the wind energy industry will require over 350K and grow by over 300% by 2040. However, wind will not provide the same power level globally as solar energy, so the number of jobs is understandably lower.
We used the nuclear energy market as the closest analog for this fusion energy jobs forecast. Based on the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2024, there are ~408 active nuclear plants and another ~110 under construction or in planning stages globally.
Nuclear, natural gas, solar, and wind have one thing in common: they all took about 20 years from introducing their first grid-level “power plant” to contributing more than 10% to the power grid. The current worldwide nuclear power workforce, including supply chain vendors, is ~500K. Ignition Research predicts that by 2050, fusion energy could reach approximately 20% of worldwide power generation and require ~1,500 fusion machines producing 1GW to achieve this target.
Fusion and nuclear energy have many technical and operational differences in power production. Reports from MIT indicate they will be close in terms of construction costs and skill requirements. Fusion should need about 20% fewer workers than nuclear but should have a similar power contribution per person employed. In building this forecast, we are using the nuclear fission market as an analog with a few critical assumptions about where they differ:
Ignition Research predicts that we will have roughly 4x more fusion (~1,500) than fission plants (408 today) by 2050.
Fusion plants should be less complex and expensive (~20% lower cost than nuclear fission) to build.
Fusion plant operating costs for fuel and maintenance (radiation) should be 50% lower than nuclear fission.
Regulatory approvals for fusion should be less demanding than for fission.
Fusion plant installation will grow at a faster rate, influenced by the accelerating power demand.
Current fission plants cost between $6-10B, and fusion machine plants should be about 20% less costly and quicker to build (3-5 years for replacement plants and 5-7 for new plants).
50% of fusion machine plants will replace current “heat generation” sources.
40% of fusion machine plants will be new site constructions with new power lines.
10% of fusion machine plants will be dedicated to data centers and industrial purposes (steel, chemical, etc.).
Nuclear power plants began contributing to the US electrical grid in 1958. In the 1980s, nuclear power reached about 10% of US electricity generation and has maintained that level since. This milestone was achieved in approximately 25 years.
Fusion will likely reach over 20% of power production in ~25 years.
Jobs Operation Nuclear Power Plants
According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, the global nuclear power workforce was ~250,000 people as of 2024 (with about 60,000 in the U.S.) for ongoing operations. The nuclear power industry faces a significant skills shortage. With an aging workforce and a need to recruit and train up to 100,000 new workers by 2025, this shortage creates opportunities for professionals with these in-demand skills, especially those who combine technical expertise with good communication and commercial skills.
Jobs in Nuclear Research and Development
The 2024 U.S. Energy & Employment Report (USEER) suggests that R&D positions will be a subset of the professional experienced and business services category, which employs ~10,000 workers in the U.S. Hence, we estimate 3,000 are engaged in R&D in the U.S., and we estimate about 10,000 globally.
Jobs Constructing Nuclear Power Plants
The World Nuclear Organization reports a current fleet of 408 active nuclear fission plants worldwide. An additional sixty reactors are under construction, and 110 are planned. Only two nuclear power plants are currently under construction in the US (Vogtle 3 & 4). Nuclear fission power plants typically employ 5,000 people during construction over a 7—10 year period, but that can be as high as 9,000 during peak construction times. This indicates that about 300,000 people are employed yearly in nuclear power plant construction.
Jobs in the Nuclear Power Supply Chain
According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear energy sector creates about 250,000 secondary jobs in supply chain and manufacturing jobs to build the components and materials used to construct and operate nuclear reactors. The nuclear supply chain is extensive, with over 700 companies in the United States. The Nuclear Energy Institute has over 300 member organizations, including utilities, universities, and vendors. The U.S. Nuclear Industry Council has over 80 member organizations, primarily vendors. The Fusion Industry Association has over 100 member companies today.
Jobs in the Nuclear Policy and Administration
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) employs about 3,000 people in five primary locations in the United States. Another 4,000 employees across the Department of Energy (DOE) are part of approximately 14,000 federal employees and over 95,000 management, operating contractors, and other contractor employees working in fusion. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), part of the DOE, includes over 60,000 federal and contract employees nationwide at its headquarters, labs, plants, and sites. With this data, we estimate there are ~7,500 people focused on nuclear energy in the U.S. and ~30K people employed across the globe in supporting nuclear power programs.
Total Nuclear Power Jobs
We estimate the nuclear industry will employ ~250K in the US in 2024 and ~1,830K globally. According to the DOE, the industry is expected to experience growth, which was seen with employment increasing by 2.8% from 2022 to 2023. With the explosion of AI/data center growth from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and xAI, which is driving power consumption and nuclear power recommissioning, we expect the U.S. growth rate for nuclear employment to accelerate in future years.
At peak construction activity, around 2,000-5,000 workers are employed on a single reactor site.
Over the entire construction period, which can last 7-10 years or more, the total labor requirement is estimated at 12,000 labor years for a 1,000-megawatt reactor.
Some specific examples provided in the search results include:
Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in Georgia created 9,000 jobs at peak construction.
Deffrennes & Gress (2012) assumed that 2,700 people worked constructing a nuclear power plant over seven years.
A nuclear plant can employ up to 5,000 construction workers at a time.
The workforce typically includes a mix of engineers, technicians, and tradespeople (electricians, welders, pipefitters, machinists, concrete workers, and carpenters).
According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, operating a nuclear power plant requires 500 to 800 full-time administrative, operations, and maintenance workers. These jobs are generally high-quality, long-term positions that include a variety of roles, such as administrative staff, operators, maintenance personnel, and other specialized contractors. It's worth noting that these figures represent direct employment at the plant itself. When considering the broader impact, the nuclear energy sector creates additional indirect and induced jobs in the surrounding economy, contributing to a total employment effect much more significant than the on-site staff alone.
Nuclear power jobs are among the clean energy sector's highest-paid, with wages approximately 25-30% higher than those of other energy technologies. The nuclear industry also provides significant local and regional employment opportunities during power plants' construction and operation phases. Overall, while salaries vary based on specific roles and locations, workers in the nuclear power sector generally earn above-average wages compared to many other industries.
Nuclear Power Reactor Operators:
The median annual wage for reactor operators was $121,240 as of May 2023.
The average hourly wage was $58.29.
Salaries ranged from $76,360 to $133,170, depending on experience level.
Nuclear Engineers:
The median annual wage for nuclear engineers was $125,460 as of May 2023.
This translates to an hourly wage of $60.32.
General Nuclear Power Plant Jobs:
The average hourly pay for nuclear power plant jobs in the US is $33.40.
The salary range is $18.99 to $61.30 per hour.
Annual salaries commonly fall between $47,500 and $127,500.
Specialized Nuclear Roles:
Nuclear Design Engineers' median annual wage is $177,000 per year
Nuclear Safety Analysis Engineers’ median annual wage is $154,474 per year
Nuclear Quality Assurance Engineers’ median annual wage is $117,737 per year
The energy sector faces an overall skilled workforce shortage, which could be a significant limitation for fusion energy’s ability to scale as quickly as power consumption forecasts would require. This shortage is particularly acute for highly specialized nuclear power plant construction and operation roles. The industry faces challenges in addressing these skill gaps due to an aging workforce, limited nuclear-specific education programs, and competition for talent from other sectors. The situation is exacerbated by the specialized nature of nuclear construction work and the long timelines in training new workers to the required level of expertise.
The top skills in high demand for the nuclear power industry:
In 2024, over 4,000 people were employed worldwide in private fusion companies, representing a 34% increase (1,034 more employees) compared to 2023 and a ~300% increase (3,011 more employees) since 2021. The breakdown of these 4,000+ employees is 48% engineers, 25% scientists, and 27% in other roles. We expect that this number will be ~6000 people by the end of 2025. This mix will change as the fusion industry moves from development to construction to operations. These figures indicate substantial growth in fusion energy employment over the past few years, with the sector now employing thousands of highly skilled workers globally, primarily in engineering and scientific roles.
Today, each nuclear power plant generates an average of 4,500 jobs (research engineering, construction, operations, supply chain, and business). We expect that fusion machine construction will be about 20% less demanding, and we estimate that there will be about 3,600 jobs per fusion machine power plant. The Ignition Research 2024 Energy Demand forecast predicts ~1,500 fusion power plants to reach ~25% of global power production by 2050. Based on these assumptions, we expect this employee mix as the industry moves from development to pilot to production. We have left a modest number of government researchers and oversight.
Based on the nuclear market modeling of the categories, applying a 20% reduction for fusion system construction jobs, and modeling the fusion machine deployment forecast from Ignition Research of ~1,500 1GW fusion energy machines, we expect to see over 1.3 million global jobs in fusion energy by 2050.
According to the Wall Street Journal, China has committed to creating 10x more fusion energy PhDs than the U.S. The College of William and Mary’s Associate Professor Saskia Mordijk says the US can keep pace if it makes the right investments now, but the clock is ticking. Funds must be allocated, fusion energy faculty needs to be expanded, and STEM programs must be accelerated to achieve the same skilled workforce. Additionally, we must build, operate, and maintain the plants and growing power grid infrastructure that will require more skilled tradespeople. Staffing for fusion energy will be vital to the industry and technology developments. The proverbial ball is in our court. We have the ability and time, but we must also have the will to make it happen, or we will concede another critical technology to China.