In Connecticut, the average starting salary at the Milestone Plant for a graduate fresh out of the nuclear technology program at Three Rivers Community College (TRCC) is around $63,000. For workers who earn master’s degrees and have many years of experience in the industry, the salary is well above that.

So it’s no surprise that community colleges are having a hard time attracting experts from the field to serve as instructors for their nuclear tech programs, which has resulted in a shortage of faculty.

 

Budget cuts at colleges are accelerating the problem. It causes a trickle-down effect—fewer faculty means enrollment is capped, which means fewer people are graduating from the program.

 

Some colleges have had success finding funds from industry partners to supplement what they pay faculty, but that’s more the exception than the rule. 

Jim Sherrard, the nuclear engineering technology program coordinator at TRCC, has filled his latest vacancies with adjuncts. Many of the industry partners are helping by providing subject-matter experts and are training current faculty to bring them up to speed.

Industry retirees are helping to fill vacancies, too.

“Many retirees aren’t ready to go off and play golf,” said Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides, manager of industry infrastructure at the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Nuclear tech in demand despite concerns with industryR.B. Richey at Cape Fear Community College (North Carolina) is himself an industry retiree, noting that he came to the two-year institution because it values industry workers with experience as instructors. As more than a third of the nuclear workforce heads into retirement over the next five years, more retirees will likely help usher their replacements into the industry. ​