The restart of the nuclear power plant closest to the epicenter of Japan’s devastating 2011 earthquake this week was hailed by the government as a major step toward reviving atomic energy. It’s also been a reminder of the crippling shortage of skilled workers that could slow that comeback. Onagawa didn’t suffer the meltdown seen at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, further down the coast. But no corner of the country’s nuclear industry was immune as public opinion soured on a technology that used to generate about a quarter of its electricity. All of Japan’s reactors were subsequently shut. Restarting them has been a tortuous process, with around 60% of commercially available units still offline. The hiatus and slow revival has dramatically worsened a skills crunch visible across the nation’s nuclear industry. At Onagawa, a power station near a small fishing port in northeastern Japan, more than a third of its technical staff have never operated a reactor before, and have practiced only on simulators. An emissions-free and stable source of electricity, nuclear power is undergoing a global renaissance as governments turn to it to meet decarbonization targets and tech companies look for clean energy for the artificial intelligence data center boom. The dearth of skilled workers in Japan is a threat to the industry’s growth. “Students were driven away from nuclear programs and managers with a great deal of ambition almost certainly looked for other opportunities” after 2011, said Mark Nelson, founder and managing director at Radiant Energy Group, a consultancy focused on the transition to cleaner fuels. If Japan can’t rely on atomic energy, it risks crimping the development and deployment of AI at scale, he said. Between 33% and 58% of operators at nuclear plants managed by seven Japanese utilities have had no prior experience running them, let alone dealing with an emergency, local newspaper Asahi Shimbun said in a study published in March.

Full report : Japan’s Nuclear Power Revival Is Threatened by a Lack of Workers.