Groves of academeNRC awards $20 million to 70 colleges for nuclear education
It has been nearly 30 years since the last nuclear power plant was built in the United States; the United States has also been cutting, rather than increasing, its arsenal of nuclear weapons; with many things nuclear falling out of favor, fewer and fewer engineering students have been choosing nuclear engineering for their career; the NRC wants to change that
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has awarded nearly $20 million to 70 colleges and education facilities — including nearly $950,000 to the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville campus — to improve nuclear education and increase the number of students entering nuclear fields.
The NRC said Congress has provided it $5 million in funding for an educational curriculum program and an additional $15 million to supplement the NRC’s grant program for scholarships and fellowships, faculty development, trade schools and community colleges.
UT-Knoxville, which has a nuclear engineering degree program within the college of engineering, will receive $449,766 in faculty development grants, $400,000 in fellowship grants, and $100,000 in second-year funding for nuclear education and curriculum development.
“As directed by Congress, this funding provides broad benefits to the nuclear sector rather than solely benefiting the NRC. These grants help develop a work force capable of the design, construction, operation and regulation of nuclear facilities and the safe handling of nuclear materials,” NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko said in a statement.
The NRC this year increased the number of institutions receiving grants from 60 to 70 and increased the number of grants to minority-serving institutions by 67 percent.
