MORE STUDENTS SEEK NUCLEAR CAREERS

摘要

Nuclear power plant operators have steadily improved the performance of commercial nuclear plants over the past 20 years, making these plants competitive with other electricity sources. Noting low enrollments in universities' nuclear engineering programs, many people, including myself, have expressed concern that this operating performance will suffer as the current experienced operators retire and companies cannot find adequate replacements. Updated information published recently in Nuclear News gives reason for optimism that this will not be the case. Three years ago in this column I questioned how the industry could address future staffing issues. At that time, potential nuclear engineering students saw a nuclear industry that was contracting, not growing. There were no plans for new power plants, and the future of existing plants was in doubt. Therefore, many promising students sought greener pastures in other disciplines. In response, many universities shut down their nuclear engineering programs for lack of students. A 2000 study by the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization (NEDHO) noted that nuclear engineering enrollment declined by two-thirds between 1992 and 2000. As a result, the study noted, only 29 schools retained their nuclear engineering departments. (I have been out of academia for 28 years, but both of the nuclear engineering programs I participated in - as student and professor - no longer exist.) The study's authors also reported that, due to expected retirements in the industry, nuclear engineering graduation rates would soon fall short of meeting the industry's needs by as many as 450 engineers a year.