My Real Struggle as a Nuclear Engineering Grad: Industry Expansion, But Fewer Opportunities for Us
Hello everyone. I’m currently a master’s student majoring in Nuclear Engineering and Nuclear Technology, and I also studied the same major for my bachelor’s degree. Both my undergraduate and postgraduate schools are fairly average. My undergraduate university is a non-Double First-Class institution. Although my master’s school is a Double First-Class university, nuclear engineering is not its strong suit — its flagship Double First-Class discipline is geological engineering. I’ve asked AI to benchmark their overall academic level, and it said they are roughly comparable to Mississippi State University and the University at Albany, SUNY.
I’m feeling really confused and lost right now. I’m set to graduate in 2025. There are more than 220 students in my grade, yet only around 28 can get hired by major nuclear power operators like CNNC and CGN. Back in the 2023 cohort, out of over 150 students, more than 50 managed to land jobs at nuclear power plants.
Take CNNC 404, for example — a key site responsible for spent fuel disposal as well as nuclear fuel production. For seniors graduating in 2024, the entry requirement was merely passing CET-4 and having no failed courses, and even then many turned down the offer simply because the location is remote and isolated. By the time I graduate in 2025, CNNC 404 already requires applicants to rank within the top 50% of our major cohort. For juniors graduating in 2026, the bar has been raised even higher to the top 20%.
We keep hearing that global nuclear energy capacity is set to triple, and China has approved and launched construction of numerous new nuclear power units. Everyone gets the sense that nuclear power is in a major global revival. But as a student in this major, what I actually feel is that employment is becoming harder and harder. Nuclear power plants increasingly favor graduates from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and automation majors over nuclear engineering majors.
I really don’t understand this. As a nuclear engineering student, I also took core courses such as analog electronics, digital electronics, engineering thermodynamics, and thermal hydraulics. Why are nuclear power plants reluctant to recruit students who majored specifically in nuclear engineering? For students from universities at my academic tier, the only positions we can realistically get at nuclear plants are plant operation and equipment maintenance roles. All of these roles still require around half a year of professional training before taking up duties. I just can’t figure out why these nuclear power plant employers still don’t prefer dedicated nuclear engineering graduates.
I once thought this tough employment situation was unique to China. But after doing online research and asking Claude and ChatGPT, I found the situation is almost the same across the world. The job market for nuclear engineering in the United States is practically identical to what we see in China.