Distance-Enabled Graduate Nuclear Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh

摘要

Strong growth in global demand for power is projected for the next half-century and beyond. This growth provides great opportunities for the nuclear industry, particularly for companies located in southwestern Pennsylvania, including Westinghouse Electric, FirstEnergy, and Bechtel Bettis. However, all of these companies are facing tremendous skilled worker shortages in the coming years. Workforce and technology development, which was dominant in the nuclear and power industries in the 1980s and 1990s, has largely been neglected since then. A large percentage of nuclear engineering talent will be retiring over the next decade, just as these companies are poised to experience strong growth in demand for their products and services. Few young employees with advanced nuclear engineering training are ready to fill this widening technical talent gap. Westinghouse Electric, for example, is poised to hire 2,000 new engineers in the Pittsburgh area over the next few years. Yet, until the development of this program, there were no graduate programs in nuclear engineering in Pittsburgh or in Western Pennsylvania. The Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering program at the University of Pittsburgh has been developed to address this need.