UF receives grant to help boost work force in nuclear-related fields

September 9, 2009

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida has been awarded a $450,000 faculty development grant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to help meet the growing need for educated and trained workers in the nuclear power industry, according to the agency.

“The NRC Faculty Development Grant is very valuable to our department and comes at a time when it can really make a difference in the number of students graduating in this area,” said David Hintenlang, interim chairman of UF’s nuclear and radiological engineering department. “The grant will be used over the next several years to jump-start the careers of two young faculty members who have just started at the University of Florida. These faculty will in turn mentor students into the nuclear engineering profession, which directly benefits the state of Florida where nuclear power generates a significant portion of our electricity and we expect a new nuclear power plant to be built within the next decade.”

UF is one of 70 institutions to receive funding from a total of nearly $20 million designed to boost nuclear education and expand the work force in nuclear and nuclear-related disciplines, the NRC announced.

The faculty development grant can either be used to pay for an existing faculty member who has been in a tenure-track position in the fields of nuclear engineering, health physics or radio chemistry for less than six years or to recruit someone to the faculty from outside the university, said John Gutteridge, an NRC spokesman.

“The grant is very important because there is a work force shortage in the fields of nuclear engineering, health physics, radio chemistry and other related fields,” Gutteridge said. “To attract students, NRC provides scholarships and fellowships, and obviously to educate those students, we need to attract faculty as well.”

The grants provide research money to faculty, who in turn can use part of it toward stipends for the graduate students assisting them on projects, he said.

“There is a shortage of faculty at the nuclear engineering schools around the country, whose numbers have grown in the last seven or eight years, and educated and trained people are needed to work at nuclear power plants and all sectors of the nuclear industry,” Gutteridge said.

At least four more nuclear power plants are likely to be built in the United States in the next decade and more are possible, he said.

“We have over 20 applications for new power plants and while not all of them are going to be built, quite a few will be, and since it appears that all of the 104 existing plants will have their licenses renewed for another 20 years, obviously those plants will need to be staffed with trained personnel,” he said.

The need to replace an aging work force over the next five years will create additional demand for skilled professionals in the field, he said.

Congress provided the NRC funding for a $5 million Educational Curriculum program and an additional $15 million toward NRC’s grant program for scholarships and fellowships, faculty development, trade schools and community colleges.

The NRC awarded 102 grants for scholarships ($2.9 million), fellowships ($5.4 million), faculty development ($4.8 million), trade and community college scholarships ($1.8 million) and nuclear education and curriculum development ($4.7 million). The grants were distributed in 29 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The faculty development program is one of five grant programs the NRC offers. Eleven awards were made from the 37 applications received for these grants.