Pitt to offer nuclear engineering

Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering is counting on nuclear power to boost it into the New… Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering is counting on nuclear power to boost it into the New Year and up to the challenges facing the world’s energy needs.

The Swanson School of Engineering will now offer certificates in nuclear engineering for graduates and undergraduates alike after the approval of Provost and senior Vice Chancellor James V. Maher, together with an advisory board of nuclear engineers and managers from some of Western Pa.’s foremost nuclear power plants, along with two national grants.

“By providing these programs, we are not only being responsive to our industry partners, but to our students as well by making them more competitive as they enter the job market,” Don Shields, codirector of the Swanson Institute for Technical Excellence, said.

The University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, which the nuclear engineering program is a part of, worked closely with the top engineers and managers from three of the region’s largest suppliers of nuclear power to develop a program that would include the courses they feel will best serve students looking to enter the nuclear engineering field.

As a result, the University will maintain a close working relationship with Bechtel Bettis Inc., Westinghouse Electric Company and FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company, with several of those companies’ employees serving as adjunct professors in the Swanson School’s nuclear engineering program.

“Bettis, Westinghouse and Beaver Valley [a power plant operated by FirstEnergy] currently offer internships to students from many universities,” nuclear engineer-turned-Pitt professor Larry Foulke said of the companies.

“And all of these companies hope to stimulate more applications from Pitt students because of the new educational opportunities in nuclear engineering education,” he added.

In addition to the mutual benefits the University and the nuclear power suppliers will enjoy by working together to produce a future workforce, the two will also share in the training program as the courses will be taught on site at Bettis, Westinghouse and Beaver Valley, as well as at Pitt.

This means that the current nuclear power engineers and Pitt students will be privy to the same knowledge about advancements in nuclear engineering technology.

Another incentive to develop a nuclear engineering program at Pitt – the only one of its kind in Western Pa. – stems from the increasingly pressing need to develop alternative energy sources to oil and fossil fuels.

“Our nation is experiencing a ‘nuclear renaissance’ as many providers of electricity are recognizing that nuclear energy has a number of significant advantages relative to the other choices for generating electricity,” Foulke said.

Better, though, is a relative term when it comes to environmentally friendly energy solutions, and Shields is quick to point out that going nuclear doesn’t exactly mean going greener per se.

“Nuclear is part of a range of energy options that are available to society. All of these options have advantages and disadvantages like cost, carbon, availability, capacity, etc.,” Shields said.

“The Swanson School of Engineering will also provide similar certificate programs in Electric Power and Mining Engineering, reflecting our balanced approach in responding to the power and energy challenges and opportunities that our society faces.”

Although both were developed by Pitt faculty and experts in the nuclear engineering field, the focus and requirements of the undergraduate and graduate certificate programs vary.

Undergrads looking to earn the nuclear engineering certificate are required to complete three courses specific to nuclear engineering and two courses that are more closely related to the student’s primary engineering major.

Graduates in the nuclear engineering program must complete five of the nine nuclear engineering courses offered with special emphasis on nuclear operations and safety.