Nuclear fission reactors: Resources and labour

Lots of concrete, little fuel and decades of skilled labour

What this tab covers The natural resources (land, water, materials, fuel or feedstock) and the labour needed to capture this energy, per unit, with the reason each is needed.

Nuclear power needs very little fuel and land per unit of energy, but a large concrete and steel structure, cooling water, enrichment services and a highly skilled workforce over a 60-plus-year life cycle.

Natural resources

Resource	How much	Why it is needed
Uranium	68,920 tonnes U required in 2025 for 2,701.6 TWh, about 25 tonnes per TWh (calculated)⁴	Only the small U-235 fraction is mainly used, so many tonnes of natural uranium are needed per tonne of fuel
Enrichment work	About 140,000 SWU per year for a 1,000 MWe reactor; at 50 kWh/SWU that is about 7 GWh, roughly 0.1% of output (calculated)⁷	Natural uranium (0.7% U-235) must be enriched to 3-5% to sustain a chain reaction in light water
Concrete, steel and other infrastructure materials	0.6-1.4 tonnes per GWh generated¹⁴	Thick concrete containment and shielding and a steel pressure vessel contain pressure and radiation
Land	About 50 times less land per unit of electricity than coal¹⁵	Fuel is extremely energy dense, so mining and plant areas are small
Cooling water	Median 672 US gallons per MWh consumed (cooling towers); once-through cooling withdraws 44,350 but consumes 269¹⁶	Two-thirds of reactor heat must be rejected, usually by evaporating water

Labour

Phase	How much	Skills	Why it is needed
Construction	About 1,200 staff over a ten-year build; 12,000 labour-years per 1,000 MWe¹³	Civil and nuclear engineers, welders, pipefitters, electricians, quality inspectors	Nuclear-grade construction requires certified work and extensive inspection
Operation	About 600 staff per year for 50 years; 30,000 labour-years per 1,000 MWe¹³	Licensed reactor operators, radiation protection, maintenance	Safety rules require round-the-clock licensed crews
Decommissioning	About 500 staff per year for ten years; around 5,000 labour-years¹³	Decontamination, remote cutting, waste packaging	Radioactive components must be dismantled safely
Waste management	About 80 staff over roughly 40 years; around 3,000 labour-years¹³	Waste and storage specialists	Spent fuel must be cooled, monitored and eventually disposed of

Direct jobs total about 50,000 labour-years per 1,000 MWe, rising to about 200,000 job-years including supply-chain and induced jobs.

Sources

World Nuclear Power Reactors and Uranium Requirements (updated 16 October 2026) World Nuclear Association, 2026
Uranium Enrichment World Nuclear Association, 2025
Study quantifies job creation in the nuclear sector (reporting OECD NEA and IAEA, Measuring Employment Generated by the Nuclear Power Sector) World Nuclear News, 2018
Updated Mining Footprints and Raw Material Needs for Clean Energy The Breakthrough Institute, 2024
How does the land use of different electricity sources compare? Our World in Data, 2022
Operational water consumption and withdrawal factors for electricity generating technologies (Macknick et al., Environmental Research Letters 7, 045802) IOP Publishing (via OpenEI), 2012