The growing interest in building more nuclear power across the United States calls for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build up its workforce to meet the incoming workload, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report this week.

Over the past couple of years, nuclear power has gained bipartisan support on Capitol Hill and across the nation as the energy source is seen to provide baseload and low-carbon power. In this growing interest, many nuclear companies and utilities are looking to build more reactors for various purposes, such as data centers and advanced manufacturing.

GAO said in its report, published Monday, it recommends that NRC finalize its workforce planning by the first quarter of fiscal 2027 and for the NRC chair to establish a system to measure the metrics on whether the agency has enough staffing to meet its needs. While NRC did not provide a formal comment letter, the agency concurred with the recommendations.

In the GAO report, NRC has seen a significant reduction in its staffing from July 2024, when the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (Advance) Act of 2024 was passed, to July 2026. GAO said that NRC’s workforce was reduced from 2,957 to 2477 or 16% in that timeframe.

GAO reported 740 employees left the agency from July 2024 to July 2026 while only hiring 270 on the flipside. Most of the departures came through the way of voluntary retirements. 

NRC began to develop a new workforce tool, NRC Enterprise eXecution and Utilization System (NEXUS), to better gauge the agency’s workforce needs in 2025. According to the report, NEXUS is a device “that NRC expects will allow the agency to more effectively assess its workforce, optimize project delivery, and strategically target the use of its ADVANCE Act authorities going forward.”

However, the NEXUS tool has been delayed several times and is expected to be completed by the first quarter of fiscal 2027, NRC officials said in the document. GAO urged that NRC stay on track with the deadline that it may begin to use its additional hiring authorities granted through the Advance Act.

Through the Advance Act, NRC was provided three authorities to address its staffing needs: the ability to directly hire certain positions, compensation flexibility and provide bonuses for hiring and performance. These authorities granted by the law are set to end by 2034.

GAO said that from July 2024 to July 2026, NRC has only used the capability to provide bonuses in 18 instances for current staffers, but did not use the only capabilities.

The total compensation awarded through bonuses was around $335,000, ranging from $15,000 and $25,000 per employee. According to the report, NRC said it did not use other authorities from the Advance Act due to the agency’s recent reorganization but will intend to use it going forward. The agency said it used preexisting direct hiring authorities to fill some of the vacancies over the past few years.

“According to NRC officials, NRC needs a more stable environment and a clear understanding of the new agency structure and workforce condition and distribution to understand where mission-critical needs may exist before conducting any external hiring,” the document said. “NRC has leveraged its preexisting direct hire authority to fill some vacancies over the years. Officials told us that NRC prefers to use the preexisting direct hire authority because it is readily available across the agency for broad positions.”

In bringing in more staffers, GAO also urges NRC to establish metrics to continue to navigate whether its staffing needs are being met.

“In addition, it is not clear that the existing authorities will sufficiently address the significant workforce challenges and needs NRC may face in the future, according to officials and some stakeholders,” GAO said. “As of July 2026, NRC had not established metrics to evaluate whether its workforce authorities adequately address its needs. Establishing such metrics could help NRC determine if it has sufficient workforce flexibilities, authorities, and tools to meet its current and future needs before the ADVANCE Act hiring and compensation authorities sunset in 2034.”

GAO conducted the audit for this report from September 2025 to September 2026.