Nuclear Engineers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 7% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about 47% by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 39% of the time, stays with people.
Conduct research on nuclear engineering projects or apply principles and theory of nuclear science to problems concerned with release, control, and use of nuclear energy and nuclear waste disposal.
15,280 people do this job in the US. $133,970 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on3 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet21 h
- Stays with people16 h
Nuclear Engineers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 3 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 21 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 16 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Monitor nuclear facility operations to identify any design, construction, or operation practices that violate safety regulations and laws or could jeopardize safe operations (about 1 h); Prepare technical reports of findings or recommendations, based on synthesized analyses of test results (under an hour); Write operational instructions to be used in nuclear plant operation or nuclear fuel or waste handling and disposal (under an hour).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 61%
- 20%
- 19%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 1%. Today's estimate: 7%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, 0.011% went to this job's tasks in May 2026, the 393rd largest of the 447 jobs that showed up at all; 1 of its 20 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.18% to 0.12% (released February and March 2025); 0.043% to 0.018% (August 2025 to February 2026); 0.011% to 0.011% (April to May 2026).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.18% | 103 of 708 | 6 of 20 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.12% | 134 of 703 | 6 of 20 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | 0.043% | 257 of 655 | 3 of 20 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | 0.021% | 378 of 672 | 5 of 20 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | 0.018% | 412 of 677 | 3 of 20 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.011% | 374 of 434 | 1 of 20 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | 0.011% | 393 of 447 | 1 of 20 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 4% of this job's working time as physical work. For 4% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 4% in a purpose-built cell. 0.04 of 3, the 603rd highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 96%
- In a purpose-built cell 4%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 20 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design or develop nuclear equipment, such as reactor cores, radiation shielding, or associated instrumentation or control mechanisms.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 11% | 1.7 work weeks4.2 work days to 4.2 work weeks | 0%Half by Jan 2028 | |
| Develop or contribute to the development of plans to remediate or restore environments affected by nuclear radiation, such as waste disposal sites.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 11% | 1.7 work weeks2.1 work days to 1.9 work months | 1%Half by Oct 2028 | |
| Design or oversee construction or operation of nuclear reactors, power plants, or nuclear fuels reprocessing and reclamation systems.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 11% | 4.2 work weeks1.7 work weeks to 4.8 work months | Stays with people | |
| Direct operating or maintenance activities of nuclear power plants to ensure efficiency and conformity to safety standards.Done daily by most who do it. | 11% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 4.2 work days | Stays with people | |
| Design fuel cycle models or processes to reduce the quantity of radioactive waste generated from nuclear activities.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 10% | 1.7 work weeks2.1 work days to 1.5 work months | 1%Half by Aug 2028 | |
| Conduct tests of nuclear fuel behavior and cycles or performance of nuclear machinery and equipment to optimize performance of existing plants.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 7% | 4.2 work days6.7 h to 3.3 work weeks | Stays with people | |
| Design or direct nuclear research projects to develop, test, modify, or discover new uses for theoretical models.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 5% | 3.3 work weeks4.2 work days to 3.1 work months | Stays with people | |
| Prepare environmental impact statements, reports, or presentations for regulatory or other agencies.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 5% | 1.7 work weeks1.7 work days to 1.5 work months | 1%Half by Oct 2028 | |
| Prepare technical reports of findings or recommendations, based on synthesized analyses of test results.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 5% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 1.7 work weeks | 20%Half by Aug 2027 | |
| Conduct environmental studies on topics such as nuclear power generation, nuclear waste disposal, or nuclear weapon deployment.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 5% | 1.7 work weeks1.7 work days to 1.9 work months | 1%Half by Dec 2028 | |
| Monitor nuclear facility operations to identify any design, construction, or operation practices that violate safety regulations and laws or could jeopardize safe operations.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 3.3 h50 min to 1.7 work days | 71%Half by now | |
| Write operational instructions to be used in nuclear plant operation or nuclear fuel or waste handling and disposal.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 4% | 2.1 work days6.7 h to 1.7 work weeks | 23%Half by May 2027 |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Nuclear Engineers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 7% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 47% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five (23% to 58% across the three paces the site shows). Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Nuclear Engineers come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Monitor nuclear facility operations to identify any design, construction, or operation practices that violate safety regulations and laws or could jeopardize safe operations (71% of the task's time now, 100% by the end of 2028); Prepare technical reports of findings or recommendations, based on synthesized analyses of test results (20% of the task's time now, 95% by the end of 2028); and Write operational instructions to be used in nuclear plant operation or nuclear fuel or waste handling and disposal (23% of the task's time now, 99% by the end of 2028).
- Which tasks of Nuclear Engineers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Design or oversee construction or operation of nuclear reactors, power plants, or nuclear fuels reprocessing and reclamation systems; Direct operating or maintenance activities of nuclear power plants to ensure efficiency and conformity to safety standards; and Conduct tests of nuclear fuel behavior and cycles or performance of nuclear machinery and equipment to optimize performance of existing plants. Together such tasks are about 39% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Nuclear Engineers?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026 and tied to a work task, 0.011% went to this job's tasks, the 393rd largest share of the 447 jobs that showed up; 1 of its 20 tasks appeared. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Nuclear Engineers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 4% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 4% of the working time. Its index is 0.04 of 3. One example: Automated high-throughput liquid-liquid extraction instrument with Bayesian optimization for "perform experiments that will provide information about acceptable methods of nuclear material usage, nuclear fuel reclamation, or waste disposal". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 20 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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