Energy crisis has U of U building up nuclear power program
Posted: 3:15 PM - After a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant suffered a partial core meltdown in 1979, university nuclear engineering programs melted away along with prospects of an industry that once promised electrical power too cheap to meter. The University of Utah's program shrunk, but remained one of the nation's 29 programs to survive Three Mile Island and the resulting collapse in nuke construction.
The U. is rebuilding its nuclear program now that the nation, faced with the twin challenges of high energy prices and climate change, is becoming receptive to splitting atoms for power. For the first time, the College of Engineering will offer a nuclear minor after U. undergraduates petitioned college brass last year.
"Nuclear is the cleanest way to generate electrical power and the United States does have the technology and the uranium ore. There's no reason not to be generating more of our power with nuclear plants," said dean Rich Brown. The college on Monday announced the establishment of a presidential chair in nuclear engineering thanks to a $1.5 million gift from the EnergySolutions Foundation, the educational arm of the Utah-based firm leading America's nuclear renaissance, which has drawn fire for its proposal to dispose of Italian nuclear waste in Utah.
"We are pleased with this endowment because it is acting as a catalyst to accomplish the growth we want," Brown said. "We will use the chair to recruit a national figure in nuclear engineering. There's a great deal of competition for people with this kind of expertise. We are not the only college that thinks it's time to invest in nuclear engineering."
Since 2001, the U. has graduated four doctorates and nine masters in nuclear engineering. Ten of the U.'s 800 engineering graduate students are going nuclear. Nationally, U.S. universities produced 402 nuclear engineers - hardly enough to satisfy the coming demand, according to EnergySolutions spokesman John Ward.
"There's going to be a serious shortage of qualified nuclear professionals no matter what," Ward said. "The work force that built up the reactor fleet in the 1970s is entering retirement age. We need to find people to replace them and for the 104 operating reactors we have today. On top of that there is interest in building more plants."
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is bracing for an onslaught of applications for new reactors and the agency itself is looking to hire 350 engineers.
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