Education

摘要

The Nuclear Science and Security Consortium (NSSC), led by the University of California-Berkeley, has begun its second decade as of 2022. The university-national laboratory partnership is funded by the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, at first as a five-year program (NSSC1) awarded a $25 million grant in 2011 to develop laboratory-integrated experts in nuclear energy. In 2016, the NNSA extended the NSSC program for five more years (NSSC2) with another grant of $25 million. The NNSA renewed the NSSC with yet another five-year, $25 million grant in 2021. NSSC3 involves 11 universities and five national labs (see sidebar). The NSSC is directed by Jasmina Vujic, a professor of nuclear engineering at UC Berkeley who has extensive nuclear experience, including as chair of that university's Department of Nuclear Engineering and as director of the UC Berkeley Nuclear Research Center. At the consortium's NSSC3 Kickoff and Advisory Board Review meeting this past April, Vujic described the collaborative's three primary objectives as recruiting and training top students in relevant nuclear disciplines, connecting students with a core set of disciplines that support the nonproliferation and nuclear security mission, and expanding university-national laboratory collaboration to provide students with the opportunity to engage in basic and applied research under the guidance of academic advisors and lab scientists.