Nuclear News Opens Nominations for 2026 ANS 40 Under 40 Recognition

Sixty-three percent of nuclear manufacturing employers told the Department of Energy that hiring was "very difficult" in 2024, the highest rate of any electric power generation sector in the country. That number lands with particular weight alongside a second figure: nearly 40% of the current nuclear workforce will be eligible to retire within the next decade. Nuclear News opened nominations for its 2026 40 Under 40 recognition list on March 27, and that double bind is exactly the backdrop against which the program carries real consequence this year.

Now in its third year after a 2024 inaugural class, the list recognizes 40 individuals age 39 or younger who have demonstrated technical achievement, leadership, and measurable impact across nuclear science, engineering, and policy. Nominations close at 11:59 p.m. Central Daylight Time on May 1, 2026, submitted via the online form on the ANS website. Nominees must hold current ANS membership through December 31, 2026.

Past honoree classes illuminate where the deepest talent is clustering and what kinds of profiles judges have rewarded. The 2025 list included professionals who traced paths from Navy submarine reactor operations into leading a $26.4 million NNSA Consortium for Nuclear Forensics connecting 16 universities and seven labs. The 2024 inaugural class featured honorees from Structural Integrity Associates and the U.S. Air Force alongside university researchers and national laboratory staff. The common thread is not sector, it is scale of impact: nominees who moved programs, secured funding, built coalitions, or expanded access to training infrastructure consistently stood out. Judges evaluate technical accomplishments, leadership, professional impact, community engagement, and potential for future influence, and the nominations that advance tend to name numbers, not tendencies.

The workforce pressure is sharpest at the intersection of advanced reactor licensing and construction timelines. SMR developers, utilities preparing for new builds, and national laboratories scaling up for NNSA programs are all competing for engineers with the same narrow credential set, and the Navy nuclear pipeline, historically a reliable feeder into commercial operations, is itself stretched. A nomination that traces an early-career professional's move across any of those sectors, or one who has actively bridged academia and industry through a consortium or apprenticeship, fits the pattern of candidates the program has prioritized.

For supervisors and colleagues building a nomination: specificity is the deciding factor. The online form rewards documented achievement over career summaries, so citations of dollar values, program names, publications, licensing milestones, or measurable training outcomes convert general impressions into competitive submissions. Nominating someone who led an NRC pre-application engagement, published on SMR fuel behavior under transient conditions, or launched a workforce development program at a minority-serving institution gives reviewers the concrete detail they need.

Winners are featured in a dedicated issue of Nuclear News and recognized across ANS events, making the list one of the few career-stage recognitions with direct visibility among utility executives, lab directors, and government program managers. With advanced reactor construction schedules now tied to federal policy timelines and a workforce gap that has no quick fix, the professionals selected for the 2026 class will represent exactly the cohort the industry is most urgently trying to retain.