If you listen to government speeches and industry updates this year, you will have heard one phrase on repeat, a “2025 nuclear’s golden age”.
When Energy Secretary Ed Miliband announced Rolls Royce as the winner of the UK SMR competition, he talked about “entering a golden age of nuclear with the biggest building programme in a generation”.
It sounds exciting.
It should be.
But there is a hard question behind the soundbite.
Can the UK find, train and keep the people needed to build, operate and decommission this much nuclear plant, at the speed that policy now demands?
This is where the real test of a “golden age” sits. Not in a press release, but in the workforce.
In this blog we break down what changed in 2025, how it reshapes demand for nuclear talent, and what employers need to do now if they want to secure skills rather than compete in ever more expensive bidding wars.
What changed in 2025? The pipeline in plain English
Sizewell C finally moved from idea to funded project
In July, the government confirmed its Final Investment Decision for Sizewell C in Suffolk, describing it as the biggest British clean energy project in a generation.
The project is now a £38 billion, two reactor station with the government taking a 44.9% equity stake, supported by investors such as La Caisse, Centrica and Amber Infrastructure.
Headlines talk about power for around 6 million homes and roughly 10,000 jobs during peak construction.
For employers, what matters is less the exact job count and more the signal.
Sizewell C is real, funded and heading into a long period of design, procurement, civils and construction.
The demand curve is no longer hypothetical.
Wylfa will host the UK’s first SMRs
In November, the UK government confirmed that Wylfa on Anglesey will host the UK’s first three Rolls Royce Small Modular Reactors, with scope for up to eight units on the site in total, alongside a supporting Welsh Government written statement.
Rolls Royce has said its programme at Wylfa will support an average of almost 8,000 highly skilled jobs across the UK per year during the build phase.
Regulators have already acknowledged the siting decision and are working through the implications for licensing and oversight.
Again, the message for the labour market is clear. SMRs have moved out of the concept stage. There is a named site, an agreed technology and an expectation of thousands of jobs layered on top of existing nuclear work.
Life extensions keep the current fleet running harder for longer
At the same time as new projects moved forward, the UK doubled down on existing stations.
Heysham 1 and Hartlepool, which were expected to end generation earlier, will now run until March 2028 following positive inspections of their graphite cores. EDF states that this decision secures more than 1,000 high quality local jobs in Lancashire and Teesside for longer, according to EDF Energy and Centrica.
Analysis from S&P Global Commodity Insights suggests the extension could add up to 15 TWh of extra low carbon generation from the two plants.
This is positive for energy security, but it also keeps demand high for experienced operators, maintenance teams and outage specialists, exactly as new build projects start to ramp up.
Policy still points to a much bigger fleet
None of this sits in isolation.
The UK’s Civil Nuclear Roadmap and updated National Policy Statement both point to an ambition of “up to 24 GW” of nuclear by 2050, far above today’s capacity.
Taskforces and trade bodies are already asking whether current structures can deliver the scale of new build, life extension and decommissioning implied by that number, without what one BusinessGreen article calls a “radical reset” in regulation and delivery models.
In short, 2025 turned aspiration into commitments. The question now is who will staff all of this.
The nuclear workforce today is already stretched
The truth is that nuclear did not start 2025 with a slack labour market.
The Nuclear Industry Association’s 2025 Jobs Map shows 98,173 people employed across the UK civil nuclear sector, an increase of around 11,000 in a single year and a 55 percent rise over the past decade.
Those jobs sit across operators, new build developers, decommissioning, waste management and the wider supply chain.
This growth has been driven by extra government funding for Sizewell C, support for SMRs and sustained decommissioning programmes. It is not a sector waiting around for work.
From a talent perspective, several pressure points are already visible.
Regional hot spots are competing for the same skills
Hinkley Point C in the South West, the Sizewell cluster in Suffolk, and now North Wales around Wylfa are all pulling from similar pools of project managers, civil and structural engineers, safety case specialists, and skilled trades.
Add in life extension work at stations such as Heysham 1 and Hartlepool, and you have multiple major projects in overlapping timeframes, drawing heavily on local labour markets and national contractors.
For many candidates, the choice is not “work in nuclear or do something else”. It is which site, which employer and which project offers the most attractive combination of pay, stability, progression and location.
The hardest roles to fill aren’t always the most glamorous
High profile titles get the attention, but in practice employers struggle just as much with:
- Project controls and planning
- Commercial and contract management
- Safety case authors and licensing specialists
- Quality and inspection roles
- Electrical and mechanical supervisors with nuclear experience
All of these are skills that can move into other regulated sectors, from offshore wind and major infrastructure to data centres and large industrial projects.
That mobility is great for individual careers. It is far more challenging for nuclear employers who assume loyalty is guaranteed because their projects are strategic or long term.
Pay rises alone are not fixing the issue
Most people in this market know rates have climbed over the past few years.
What we see on the ground though is that simple “pay more and hope” strategies are running out of road. Candidates weigh up location, stability, shift patterns, training and culture alongside headline salary.
Employers that cannot explain the full package clearly are losing out, even when they put attractive numbers on the table.
What the 2025 announcements mean for talent demand
If you step back and lay the major decisions on a timeline, a clear pattern appears.
In the short term, roughly the next one to three years, you can expect increased demand for:
- Design and engineering roles linked to Sizewell C and Wylfa
- Safety, regulatory and environmental specialists as SMRs move through siting and licensing
- Grid connection, civils and infrastructure planning work across several sites
In the medium term, three to seven years out, construction activity is likely to peak.
This is when:
- Two EPR units at Sizewell C are deep into civils, mechanical and electrical installation
- The first SMR units are being assembled and commissioned
- Life extension projects and decommissioning programmes keep the existing fleet busy
Demand during this period will be fierce for project managers, construction managers, commissioning engineers, quality assurance and inspectors, and the full range of construction trades.
Over the longer term, beyond seven years, the balance shifts towards operations, maintenance and outage work on a larger fleet, while decommissioning continues for older stations.
The key point is that there is no clean handover. New build, life extension and decommissioning overlap. Regions such as Suffolk, North Wales, Lancashire and Teesside will see sustained nuclear activity for decades.
From a talent perspective, the risk is obvious. If everyone wants similar skills, in the same windows of time, the market becomes more volatile and more expensive. Employers who plan early and build genuine workforce strategies will cope. Those who treat each hire as a one off scramble will not.
Lessons from nuclear recruitment in 2025
Astute spends its time in the middle of this market, speaking daily with candidates, clients and project teams. A few patterns stand out from this year.
The best prepared employers moved early
The most successful clients did not wait for every contract variation to be signed before thinking about people.
They started workforce planning at or even before Final Investment Decision.
They mapped the roles they would need, the stages those roles would be critical, and where they could develop talent internally instead of relying solely on external hires.
Crucially, they also engaged with labour partners early.
That gave agencies time to build talent pools, pre qualify candidates and warm up networks long before the first urgent vacancy landed.
Process mattered as much as salary
When candidates have options, process is part of the offer.
Employers who moved quickly, made decisions within clear timeframes and kept communication tight between stages saw far higher acceptance rates.
Where processes dragged, with multiple interview stages, vague feedback and shifting role briefs, strong candidates simply dropped out and chose more decisive employers.
Training and conversion beat “unicorn” hunting
The reality is that there are not enough people with ten plus years of direct nuclear experience to meet every project’s wish list.
Some of the smartest moves we saw in 2025 came from employers who created structured conversion routes.
They looked to adjacent sectors such as oil and gas, conventional power, defence and major civils, then invested in nuclear specific training and mentoring.
It required more thought upfront, but it opened up a far broader pool of capable people and built loyalty from those who were given a genuine route into the sector.
Four talent strategy moves to make now
If you are responsible for nuclear hiring, the message from 2025 is simple. The projects are coming, with or without a workforce plan. You need to choose which side of that equation you want to be on.
Here are four practical steps to take now.
1. Build a workforce plan to 2030, not just for the next outage
Treat people planning with the same discipline you apply to project planning.
Map out the phases of your work between now and 2030, then list the roles that are genuinely critical at each stage. Identify where existing staff can step up or reskill, and where you will need external talent.
The goal is to move from reactive hiring to a clear view of when, where and how you will need people, across new build, life extension, operations and decommissioning.
2. Strengthen early careers and conversion routes
The sector is already trying to widen its pipeline.
The NIA makes a point of highlighting the growth in apprentices and under 20s in its latest Jobs Map.
You can build on that by:
- Partnering with local colleges and universities near nuclear sites
- Creating apprenticeships that rotate across different parts of your business
- Designing conversion programmes for experienced engineers from other regulated sectors
You will not feel the benefit of this overnight, but by the time the heaviest construction years hit, you will be glad you started.
3. Treat labour partners as strategic, not transactional
If you only speak to agencies when you have an urgent vacancy, you will only ever get urgent results.
The clients who fared best in 2025 shared their project pipeline with recruitment partners, agreed realistic timelines and engaged in joint talent pooling. That made it possible to identify and engage critical skills months before start dates.
In a market as tight as nuclear, that level of partnership is no longer a luxury. It is a necessity.
4. Sharpen your proposition to nuclear talent
Finally, be honest about why someone should choose your project and your organisation over the alternatives.
Pay will always matter, but candidates are asking more detailed questions. They want to understand:
- How stable is the project funding
- What the rotation patterns and working hours really look like
- Whether there is a clear route to progression
- How much training, professional development and flexibility you are prepared to offer
If your answers are vague, or your messaging in the market does not match the reality candidates hear during interview, you will lose people.
How Astute can help
At Astute, we sit across new build, operations and decommissioning in the UK nuclear sector.
That gives us a live view of what candidates are asking for, what competitors are offering, and where the market is tightening fastest.
We support nuclear employers with:
- Salary and day rate insight across key roles and regions
- Workforce planning input at FID and pre FID stages
- Building and managing talent pools for critical disciplines, from project controls and safety case to site management and outage delivery
- Early careers and conversion planning, connecting clients with people who want to move into nuclear from adjacent sectors
If you are looking at Sizewell, Wylfa or any part of the UK nuclear fleet and want to stress test your talent strategy for the next five years, we would be happy to talk.
The real test of a “golden age”
The UK has moved nuclear from political slogan to concrete commitments in 2025. Funding is in place, sites are chosen and lifetimes have been extended.
Whether this becomes a true “golden age” will not be decided in Whitehall, but on sites, in control rooms and across the supply chain.
If the sector can attract, train and retain enough skilled people, the projects announced this year can deliver clean power, stable careers and regional growth for decades.
If it cannot, timelines will slip, costs will rise, and public patience will shorten.
The next phase of UK nuclear will be won or lost on talent. Now is the time to put a serious workforce plan in place.
