Engineers will be able to work up close and personal with nuclear reactors after completing the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering’s nuclear power generation program.

Keith Holbert, an associate professor in the electrical engineering department and director of the new program, said the online core classes emphasize nuclear-reactor theory and how electricity is made from nuclear energy.

“Students will study how nuclear reactors behave during normal conditions and how they behave during startup and shutdown,” Holbert said.

The classes also focus on licensing and safety, he said.

Holbert said the classes also teach about the different events that could occur and how to avoid problems while designing the reactors.
Since the program is a graduate-level certificate, it only requires 18 hours of coursework, Holbert said.

“We’re thinking that professional people would be interested in the certificate program,” he said. “It’s great to take advantage of engineers already out in the industry … who want to find new job prospects.”

Students who complete this program have many job options, he said.

“They might go to work at a government agency or an engineering architect construction firm that will be constructing the plants, like General Electric,” Holbert said.

Typically, engineers aren’t running the power plant, he said. Instead, they’re analyzing how the plant is functioning and how to fix any problems that arise.

There are currently about 30 applications being put in for new nuclear reactors in the United States, Holbert said.

“The anticipation is that nuclear power is going to become much more popular in the near future,” he said.

Holbert said people don’t think far enough ahead to realize that solar and wind power aren’t as reliable as other sources since they happen to go out.

“You have to have some electricity source that’s available when people want it,” Holbert said. “We need to be in a position to respond to those needs in a nationwide and global viewpoint.”

Even though the average completion time for the program is about 18 months, it depends on the person, he said.

“If I was working full time, maybe I’d only take one class a semester and maybe one in the summer,” Holbert said. “If someone was going to school full time, you could knock that out easy in one year.”

Deirdre Meldrum, the school’s dean, said the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission funded a grant for course development, which is why the program was created in the midst of budget cuts.

“It retools engineers for new positions that are essential with the downturn in the economy,” she said.

Jeffrey Goss, assistant dean for the school’s Global Outreach and Extended Education program, is involved with administering the online classes. He said the program has three perspectives.

“One is for working professionals, and we can make an assumption that they have traditional engineering undergraduate degrees,” Goss said. “They might not want to get an entire master’s degree in nuclear power systems.”

The other student perspective focuses on engineers who might already have a master’s degree or Ph.D, he said.

The third scenario would be a student who might not have made a decision to pursue a master’s degree, Goss said.

Goss said nuclear power generation is clean and safe, and nuclear power has been expanded globally.

“With that said, a lot of the nuclear engineering professionals right now are nearing retirement age,” he said. “This is an opportunity for our corporate partners to leverage graduates from this program for positions that they’ll need to fill in the near future.”

Reach the reporter at charlsy.panzino@asu.edu.