From timesunion.com  

By ERIC ANDERSON, Deputy business editor  

TROY -- The agency that oversees the nuclear power industry is facing "massive" retirements and is scrambling to recruit as nuclear energy is once again expanding.

But unlike a decade or two ago, "young people today see a real future in nuclear," said Dale E. Klein, who chairs the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Klein visited Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Wednesday morning to talk with nuclear engineering students about the outlook for the industry and its regulators. He was joined by President Shirley Ann Jackson, who once held the NRC post.

"We're not an advocate for or against nuclear power," Klein said. But his agency has a central role in making sure the industry is operated safely and securely.

"RPI has had a long history of nuclear education," said Jackson, who added that the college also is facing a wave of retirements among its nuclear engineering faculty. But in a sign the school sees a bright future for nuclear power, "we're replacing them at a 3-to-2 ratio," she said.

The NRC currently has nine site applications pending for 14 reactors. In one change to reduce the financial risk to utilities, the agency now issues construction and operating permits together, instead of waiting until the multibillion-dollar plants are built to determine whether they'll be allowed to operate. The NRC instead monitors a plant through its construction phase.

It reduces the financial risk to the industry, Klein said.

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