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Nuclear Engineering Program

As the global thirst for energy outpaces the ready supply, the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering is taking part in the resurgence of nuclear power as one alternative to fossil fuels.

Pitt Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor James V. Maher recently approved graduate and undergraduate certificates in nuclear engineering—the only nuclear engineering tracks in Western Pennsylvania. The certificates are available through the Swanson School’s recently established nuclear engineering program, part of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science.

Noted nuclear engineer Larry R. Foulke directs Pitt’s nuclear engineering program and serves as a professor. Among the first generation of nuclear engineers, Foulke joined Pitt’s faculty in 2006 following a 40-year career that included managing reactor safety, training, and simulation programs for Westinghouse and the Bechtel Bettis naval nuclear propulsion research laboratory in West Mifflin. He is a past president of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and, as a recent chair of the ANS Public Policy Committee, regularly meets with members of Congress about matters pertaining to nuclear science and energy.

The Program

Pitt’s program is unique because it offers students access to Western Pennsylvania’s distinct concentration of nuclear energy experts from companies such as Bechtel Bettis, Inc.; Westinghouse Electric Company, one of the world’s largest vendors of nuclear reactor technology; and FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company, which operates the Beaver Valley Power Station nuclear power plant in Shippingport. An advisory committee of engineers and managers from these three companies took part in designing the curriculum to ensure that students learn the most relevant and up-to-date information, and experts from those companies also serve as adjunct professors. Students pursuing nuclear engineering certification also work closely with engineers at such local facilities as FirstEnergy’s Beaver Valley Plant.

The Pitt program was specifically designed to give students the education that today’s companies and facilities want their nuclear engineers to have, Foulke said. “It’s natural for Pitt to offer a nuclear engineering education—we’re surrounded by one of the largest concentrations of nuclear engineering experts in the world,” he said. “Our nuclear engineering program is driven by the workforce needs of these facilities. We asked them what knowledge our graduates should have, then designed our courses.”

The undergraduate certificate consists of three nuclear engineering courses plus two approved courses related to nuclear technology from the student’s respective engineering major. Foulke began teaching the first undergraduate course in Fall 2006 and completed the third in December of 2008 with an enrollment of 77 students. Students who have completed all five required courses were the first group to receive undergraduate certificates in nuclear engineering from Pitt. The more intensive graduate certificate, which focuses on nuclear operations and safety, began in August of 2007 and requires the completion of five out of nine nuclear engineering courses to be offered.

The program has been further developed with the help of over $1 million awarded from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the U.S. Department of Energy, Westinghouse, and First Energy, among others. A large portion of the NRC grant is going toward developing a distance learning component for teaching students across Pennsylvania and offering further education to nuclear engineers already in the workplace.

"These grants signify that the University of Pittsburgh is becoming a major player in nuclear engineering education and in meeting the workforce and research needs for the nuclear renaissance in the United States," said Foulke.

Larry Foulke

Larry Foulke retired in February of 2006 after a career with Westinghouse Energy Systems and the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. Foulke’s areas of interest are education and training, nuclear energy policy, space and time dependent reactor kinetics, and space nuclear power.

For more information, visit the Web site for the undergraduate certificate at www.engr.pitt.edu/mems/undergraduate/nuclear-certificate.html, or for the graduate certificate at www.engr.pitt.edu/mems/graduate/nuclear-certificate.html.

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