MC EXCLUSIVE India's nuclear ambitions set to bring a jobs boom, courses and training programmes planned after PMO intervention

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As India aims to add 100 gigawatt (GW) of nuclear energy capacity by 2047, the need for thousands of specialised manpower to design, build and operate such power plants has been flagged as one of the biggest challenges in multiple government meetings, including one convened by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), officials privy to the matter told Moneycontrol.

To avoid a workforce crisis in the sector that is set to expand by more than 11 times in 21 years from the current capacity of 8.8 GW, the government is working on an inter-ministerial plan to add specialised personnel at various stages of the India’s National Nuclear Energy Mission, the officials said.

“India will need skilled workforce—ranging from nuclear engineers and reactor physicists to radiation safety officers and plant technicians— who will be critical to scaling up the country’s atomic energy programme. The nuclear sector is set to open at least 1-1.5 lakh jobs in India,” said one of the officials, adding that the matter is being regularly reviewed by the PMO.

In an exclusive interview to Moneycontrol, Nuclear Power Corporation of India's (NPCIL) chairman and managing director, Bhuwan Chandra Pathak, had said the company is going to increase its current workforce of 11,000 manifold in the coming years, and that recruitment for at least 2,000 posts is underway.

“However, the challenge is that very few students and engineers opt for nuclear engineering in India currently. So, the pool of specialised people is pretty low in the country right now. This is also because the sector has been only open to the federal government so far, which means there were limited jobs. This gap will be addressed in the coming years,” the official quoted above said.

Pool of 1.86 lakh skilled workforce needed

According to estimates by a government panel, the National Nuclear Energy Mission would need at least 1,86,500 skilled personnel. This includes 5,500 experts to design nuclear power plants, 1,20,000 trained personnel to construct the plants and 61,000 skilled workforces to operate and maintain the plants.

“Because of the gold standard in quality practices followed for nuclear projects, it often requires for the professionals carrying out quality functions (including welding and quality control or surveillance) to undergo and pass custom tests (over and above the professional certification) before they can be onboarded in a nuclear project,” the panel explained as to why capacity building in the sector is different and tougher compared to other infrastructure projects.

Specialised courses and more seats in nuclear engineering

Noting that the current workforce and training capacity are inadequate for the scale of nuclear expansion envisaged, the government is mulling to introduce new undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in nuclear technology, reactor design, radiation safety, and related disciplines at central and state universities, IITs, and NITs.

It also plans to increase the intake in existing courses run by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Training School and other specialised institutes. “New regional centres of excellence could be established, and collaborations between academia, industry, and the Department of Atomic Energy could be fostered to develop a continuous pipeline of trained manpower for design, construction, and operation of nuclear plants,” according to a government document seen by Moneycontrol.

NPCIL and NTPC asked to step up

The government has asked NPCIL to substantially ramp up its internal training infrastructure—not only to meet its own future staffing needs but also to train personnel for other public and private entities that may enter the nuclear sector as policy reforms open participation. NPCIL is also likely to expand intake at its existing training centres, establish new regional training hubs, and collaborate with academic and technical institutes to design specialised curricula in reactor operation, safety, and maintenance.

NTPC, which is relatively new to the nuclear domain, is likely to build a dedicated pool of nuclear-trained engineers and operators by partnering with NPCIL and BARC. It is also likely to set up its own nuclear training division and sponsor personnel for specialised nuclear courses and certification programmes, so that it can independently plan, build, and operate future nuclear stations.