Skills & Careers
Every one of 10 occupations tied to nuclear science paid an average wage above the national mean for all jobs in May 2025, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics snapshot published Monday, Oct. 19, to mark Nuclear Science Week, which is held during the third week of October.
The overview, in the agency’s The Economics Daily series, draws on the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey and points to nuclear technology’s reach across electric power, health care and agriculture. Its figures are national annual mean wages and exclude the self-employed. The U.S. average wage for all occupations was $69,770 in May 2025.
Where the pay is highest
Radiologists led the list by a wide margin, with an annual mean wage of $381,530 and employment of 26,770. BLS noted that radiologists rank among the highest-paying occupations in the entire survey.
Physicists were next at $171,180, with 20,430 jobs, followed by medical dosimetrists at $148,500. Dosimetrists were also the smallest occupation in the group, at 3,410 jobs.
On the energy and engineering side, nuclear engineers numbered 15,280 with a mean wage of $140,420. Nuclear power reactor operators averaged $121,380 across 5,150 jobs. Nuclear technicians averaged $108,940 with employment of 6,470. Postsecondary physics teachers numbered 13,090 and averaged $111,460.
Health care holds most of the jobs
Medical imaging and radiation treatment account for most of the employment in the group. Radiologic technologists and technicians were by far the largest occupation, with 230,490 jobs, but also the lowest-paid in the snapshot at an annual mean wage of $83,840, still about $14,000 above the all-occupation average. Radiation therapists averaged $114,990 with 17,070 jobs, and nuclear medicine technologists averaged $105,160 with 17,080 jobs.
Those health roles sit inside a much larger occupational group. In the May 2025 OEWS release, published May 15, 2026, healthcare practitioners and technical occupations had 9.8 million jobs and an annual mean wage of $108,700, with registered nurses the largest occupation at 3.4 million.
What the numbers do and don't say
For career planners, the snapshot shows that several of the higher averages come with small headcounts. Reactor operators, nuclear technicians and medical dosimetrists together accounted for about 15,030 jobs nationwide, roughly 6.5% of the employment in the radiologic technologist occupation alone. The imaging technologist path, by contrast, offers far more positions at a lower average wage.
The figures describe May 2025, not current openings, and they are means rather than medians, so a small number of very high earners can lift an average. Many of these occupations also require specific degrees, clinical training, licensure or plant-specific qualifications that the wage table does not capture. The survey covers about 830 occupations and roughly 530 geographic areas; BLS said the federal funding lapse from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, 2025, required extra collection and processing time for the May 2025 panel, but response rates stayed within the normal range and no methodology changes were needed.
The national figures do not show where the jobs are concentrated or how pay varies by metro area, and they should not be read as Atlanta or Georgia values. Anyone weighing one of these paths locally would need state or metro OEWS estimates and current postings.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Economics Daily, “Recognizing nuclear science occupations for Nuclear Science Week,” October 19, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2026/recognizing-nuclear-science-occupations-for-nuclear-science-week.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational Employment and Wages — May 2025,” May 15, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.nr0.htm
Featured photo: The training control room at Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant in North Carolina, an exact duplicate of the operating reactor's control room used for simulations and training, Sept. 9, 2017. Representative image; not a depiction of the occupations or wage data in the BLS snapshot. Photo: RadioFan, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped from the original.
