Contact: Dick HatfieldPhone: 573-341-4328E-mail: [email protected]
INTEREST IN NUCLEAR POWER FUELS DEMAND FOR MORE ENGINEERS
ROLLA, Mo. -- Just as interest in nuclear power may be reviving, the nation could be running low on the nuclear engineers needed to keep reactors running, says a University of Missouri-Rolla professor.
With President George W. Bush promoting nuclear power as a viable energy source, the interest in nuclear engineering is returning, says Dr. Akira Tokuhiro, an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla.
"The U.S. is currently about 300 nuclear engineers short of what it needs," says Tokuhiro, who is also director of the UMR Nuclear Reactor. "Last year, only 130 bachelor of science degrees in nuclear engineering were awarded to graduates across the U.S."
Tokuhiro adds that the average nuclear engineering student will receive at least three job offers by graduation.
Colleges and universities are seeing a turnaround in student interest in nuclear engineering, Tokuhiro says.
"UMR is producing nine to 15 graduates a year, and we are now the fifth largest university in terms of nuclear engineering graduates in the country," he says. "If we had four or five more graduates, we would be number one or two."
In addition, UMR has a high enrollment of women students in nuclear engineering. "About 20 percent of our students are women," Tokuhiro says.
During the summer, UMR also hosts nuclear engineering camps for high school students interested in the nuclear engineering field. "Those camps give high school students the chance to learn more about their field of interest," Tokuhiro says.
The camps are growing. "Last summer we had seven students in our camp. But this year there are about 50 students signed up to attend the camp."
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