Prospect said the White Paper was doomed to fail unless ministers mounted an engineering skills drive to attract new recruits to the industry.

Prospect General Secretary Paul Noon said: "Wishing a nuclear renaissance is not enough to make it happen. That will only come about if there is long-term certainty for investors and if the growing shortages are reversed in key skills like project management, nuclear safety, and control and instrumentation.

"Meeting these challenges will depend on raising the flow of qualified graduates coming out of our universities and recognition by employers that training takes time. The tragedy is that there is a well of talent waiting to be tapped that government and employers have failed to exploit.

"Only 18% of the science and engineering workforce is female and in the nuclear industry the figure is a dismal 12%.

"The energy sector badly needs to promote family-friendly and flexible working to support the recruitment of female scientists and engineers. The new sector skills councils have done plenty to identify what the problems are – but there is precious little evidence of plans or action to tackle them."

The skills gaps in the nuclear industry and energy sectors were the subject of reports last year by their two Sector Skills Councils: Cogent, and Energy and Utility Skills. In the nuclear industry, 72% of companies are experiencing skills shortages.

Prospect represents over 102,000 professional workers including 28,000 scientists and engineers working in electricity supply and transmission, nuclear power, R&D and related environmental and safety bodies.