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As the nuclear industry stirs with the first plans in 30 years to build new power plants in the United States, there's an unexpected hurdle to be overcome: There may not be enough nuclear engineers around anymore to build and run them.

What's worse, the generation that built and ran America's nuclear plants is aging and headed towards retirement, taking decades of know-how that have kept reactors operating safely.

"This is a huge problem for the nuclear industry, because it goes without saying it can't afford to make a single mistake," said David DeLong, a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AgeLab.

DeLong said 28 percent of the 58,000 workers in the U.S. nuclear-power industry will be eligible to retire within five years, representing a huge loss of institutional memory.

At the other end, America isn't producing enough new nuclear engineers to fill the ranks of the retirees.

The Defense Science Board says the number of engineers produced at U.S. universities has declined 10 percent since the Cold War ended in 1990. That poses national security concerns because the military will need a new generation of engineers to design and run the successors to America's long-range nuclear strike systems like the Peacekeeper and Trident missiles.

The industry is already taking steps to encourage universities to attract more students into engineering.

"We're watching this area very carefully," said Carol Berrigan, senior project manager for advanced reactors at the Nuclear Energy Institute.

She said a low point came in 1998 when some universities threatened to close nuclear programs because so few had enrolled. The number of students has since increased, but "this is a gathering storm for science and engineering nationally," she said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it also is feeling the pinch as it looks for engineers who can oversee regulation of the nation's 103 nuclear power plants already operating.

"The overall available crop of scientists and students is not what it used to be," said NRC spokesman Scott Burnell.

The engineering shortage comes as the nuclear industry is preparing the first construction of power plants in 30 years. Construction of new nuclear power plants stopped because of safety concerns after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident.

What's spurred interest in new plants is legislation adopted by Congress last year. It provides more than $3 billion in incentives to the industry for new plants and limits damage awards from lawsuits in the event of nuclear accidents.

The Nuclear Energy Institute expects 11 new plants to be built, and the NRC's Burnell said the agency expects to consider the first requests for new plants by next year or 2008.

David Lochbaum, director for nuclear-safety projects at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said it's not just the lack of experienced engineers, but other specialists who will be required to build the plants.

"When you move beyond the blueprint, it requires welders and pipe fitters and others with specialized knowledge," he said.

The industry says the new plants will incorporate three decades of new knowledge, with new designs known in the industry as "Generation 3-Plus" that will make the reactors safer to operate. Newer generations of nuclear plants have upgraded electrical systems and rely less on mechanical switches that can be subject to human error, and more on natural-gravity devices to deal with emergencies.

Advocates of nuclear power argue that after five decades, the technology has shown it can be operated safely, but opponents point to the Three Mile Island accident and the 1986 meltdown at Chernobyl for what can go wrong. Lochbaum noted that since 1952, when the first electricity-producing nuclear reactor opened, 40 of the 130 reactors that have operated in the United States have been shut down for safety reasons for more than a year — a measure of the dangers of the technology.