U.S. Nuclear Engineering Education Status and Prospects (1990) / Chapter Skim
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4 STATUS OF NUCLEAR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
4 STATUS OF NUCLEAR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
Pages 35-56
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From page 35... ...
NUCLEAR ENGINEERING FACULTY Age Distribution and Experience Faculties of the academic departments in which nuclear engineering is taught are generally weighted heavily toward the senior ranks. Such departments developed between 1955 and 1970, with faculty appropriate to relatively high enrollments and the expectation of further growth.
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From page 36... ...
The concern for the relatively older average age of the nuclear engineering faculty becomes particularly serious when one considers the difficulty of their replacement. First, it should be apparent from the
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From page 37... ...
information presented elsewhere in this report regarding the capacity of the nuclear engineering programs, and the need for nuclear engineering graduates at the various degree levels, that the present number of nuclear engineering faculty will have to be at least maintained and more likely increased to meet future needs. However, the time required to bring an aspiring entry level student through the bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D.
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From page 38... ...
A total of ten categories of research were selected to cover the field: 0 Reactor physics and shielding o Computational methods and artificial intelligence o Reactor systems analysis and design o Thermal hydraulics o Reactor safety o Reactor operations 0 Radiation effects o Materials and nuclear fuels 0 Biological effects, waste management, and the environment 0 Fusion and plasma physics. The first eight categories are referred to as "reactor-related disciplines" in this report.
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From page 39... ...
The specific areas where this tendency is noted include reactor physics and shielding, reactor systems analysis and design, fusion, materials and nuclear fuels, and waste management. Interest also exists in computational methods and artificial intelligence.
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From page 40... ...
Over the last decade, the enrollment of foreign nationals has dropped from about 7 percent of the total to the present level of about 2 percent. 1.2 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 _ Seniors S ~ 1 1 ~ ~| Juniors 1 ~ O L I I I I I I I I I I I 78 80 82 84 86 88 YEAR FIGURE 4-3 Total enrollment in nuclear engineering junior and senior classes.
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From page 41... ...
Nearly one-third enter graduate studies, 20 percent are employed by utilities, and significant numbers by reactor vendors, the military, national laboratories, and others. The employment base is relatively diverse.
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From page 42... ...
Capacity of Undergraduate Programs The estimated maximum capacity of existing undergraduate programs is based on the assumption of no change in the number of faculty, but with additional support through proportional increases in operational resources for
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From page 43... ...
The estimate of capacity is based on respond-in" institutions answers to the committee's questionnaire and by raising estimated class sizes to 20. Based on these assumptions, the entry class capacity of present undergraduate nuclear engineering programs is 800 students per year.
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FIGURE 4-7 Weighted distribution of undergraduate majors for students entering nuclear engineering graduate programs. SOURCE: Committee survey.
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From page 45... ...
The most noticeable shift in recent years is the increased number of mechanical engineering undergraduates that go on to graduate studies in nuclear engineering. Undergraduate physics majors have traditionally been a source of graduate students in nuclear engineering.
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From page 46... ...
and Ph.D. nuclear engineering graduates' first-job employment distribution for the past five years.
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From page 47... ...
from Various Sources for Departments of Nuclear Engineering Funding Source Percent of Funding Amount of Funding National Science Foundation 12.3 5.29 National laboratories 6.3 2.71 Department of Energy 43.9 18.88 NASA 18.7 8.04 Electric Power Research Institute 4.7 2.02 Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1.0 0.43 Industry 6.8 2.92 Foreign institutions 1.2 0.52 Other 5.1 2.19 SOURCE: Committee survey.
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From page 48... ...
Again, identifying research areas by category is complicated, both because of many disciplinary designations (such as materials, thermal TABLE 4-2 Percentages of Total Research Funds for Various Areas Research Area Percent of Funds Amount of Funds (million dollars) Basic nuclear sciences 11.3 4.86 Civilian nuclear power 14.6 6.28 Space nuclear power 2.0 0.86 Medical applications 3.8 1.63 Materials sciences 10.9 4.69 Energy research 0.5 0.22 Fusion and plasma physics 44.0 18.92 Environmental assessments 2.7 1.16 Other 10.2 4.38 SOURCE: Committee survey.
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From page 49... ...
UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM Results of the committee survey indicate that the educational requirements for undergraduate nuclear engineering degrees are fairly standard from institution to institution. About 130 to 135 semester hours are required for a four-year program.
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From page 50... ...
For the most part, these basic engineering requirements are taught by faculty members outside the nuclear engineering department or program. However, it is the committee's opinion that experienced nuclear engineering faculty members are essential for the most effective teaching of advanced undergraduate courses, such as applied nuclear physics, reactor theory, reactor engineering and design, the nuclear fuel cycle, radiation effects, systems design, and thermal hydraulics.
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From page 51... ...
Advanced courses in reactor theory and design, thermal hydraulics, computational methods, radiation transport, nuclear instrumentation, and safety analysis are common in core curricula at the beginning graduate level. The more advanced graduate courses vary greatly from program to program and often bear little resemblance to the more traditional reactor-oriented nuclear engineering courses.
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From page 52... ...
The institutions with either high or low undergraduate nuclear engineering student enrollments are not necessarily those with the same pattern at the graduate level. The three institutions with the most student credit hours taught per FTE faculty have nuclear engineering faculty that take core engineering or science teaching assignments outside the nuclear engineering program.
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From page 53... ...
Finally, the use of the nuclear reactor in support of research in a wide variety of other disciplines provides the young engineer experience with the interdisciplinary role that nuclear engineering can play in the technical community and with the challenges and satisfactions of successful interdisciplinary activity. A detailed study of the use of university nuclear reactors was conducted by the National Research Council (NRC, 1988~.
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From page 54... ...
The relatively senior average age of the nuclear engineering faculty means that salaries are higher. Thus, the average cost of a unit of faculty effort is generally higher in nuclear engineering departments.
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From page 55... ...
One might ask the question as to whether the instructional directions are complemented by the research activities at each institution. TABLE 4-5 Numbers of Institutions with Given Areas of Strength Area ~_ _ Reactor engineering Systems analysis and safety Artificial intelligence Advanced reactors Radiation transport Radiation effects Nuclear materials Radiation detection Health physics Criticality safety Waste management Fusion and plasma physics Accelerators SOURCE: Committee survey.
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From page 56... ...
0 The current size of the nuclear engineering faculty is adequate. At the graduate level, the student-to-faculty ratio is about the same as for other engineering faculties.
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