Recruiting Up for Nuclear Engineers
Many companies in Virginia have an interest in nuclear power, an industry that has been near-dormant in the country for about 30 years. However, the possibility of a new focus on nuclear power will require companies to begin recruiting new engineers.
In the past year, according to an article by the Daily Progress, many state colleges and universities have increased their response to a potential need for more engineers, specifically on a nuclear level. The University of Virginia used to have undergraduate and graduate programs in nuclear engineering, as well as a research reactor on campus until the mid-1990s.
“Nuclear energy was going to power every aspect of our life,” Bill Hall, who worked at Duke Energy in Charlotte, North Carolina for 30 years and now teaches at the University, said in the article.
In 1979, a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Middletown, Pa., had a partial meltdown, causing many company and university programs to fold. But the current emphasis on finding alternative energy is helping to revive nuclear studies. The University of Virginia is in talks to add a nuclear studies minor to its engineering school.
Aside from helping the country become less dependent, students of nuclear power could see a starting salary of about $65,000 per year. Also, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, about 45 percent of workers in the nuclear industry could be eligible to retire or will leave the field in the next five years. This is leaving many openings and causing companies to up their recruiting efforts.
“In the next five to 10 years there’s going to be a lot of hiring going on,” Kerry Basehore, director of nuclear analysis and fuel for Richmond-based Dominion, said in the article.
Virginia Commonwealth University began offering a nuclear engineering component to its master’s degree program in 2007. The program is supported by Dominion and has found the majority of its interest among engineers who are already in the work force but who are looking for a nuclear skill set.
VCU also is using a grant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to develop a nuclear track for its undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering. Students there also are working to develop an electric-powered see-through reactor simulator, so students can learn operations of a real reactor.
Virginia Tech, which once offered degrees in nuclear engineering and supported a research reactor, last year began offering graduate classes where students earn a master’s or undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering with a nuclear engineering certificate. The school is working on offering master’s and doctoral degrees by fall of next year. Tech professors Gene Brown and Mark Pierson are also working to bring master’s and doctoral degrees to the university by fall 2009.
Recently, Areva and Northrop Grumman Corp.’s shipbuilding division announced its plans to partner to build a manufacturing and engineering facility in Newport News, Virginia to supply components for nuclear reactors to be built in the United States, the first in 35 years.
The $360 million plant is expected to create 500 jobs. Areva currently employs about 70,000 people worldwide, 2,000 in Virginia, and is trying to bring seven new power plants to the United States between 2015 and 2030. The company has been spending more time recruiting recent graduates and current students lately.
Tags: Recruiting
November 10th, 2008 at 10:31 am
[...] However, the possibility of a new focus on nuclear power will require companies to begin recruiting new engineers. In the past year, according to an article by the Daily Progress, many state colleges and universities have increased .. Original post [...]