Chairman Voinovich, Mr. Carper and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to provide your committee with some information and perspectives about the roll that nuclear engineering programs have in providing a supply of educated professionals to the required work force in the nuclear field. This topic is a central concern of the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization (NEDHO), which I chaired several years ago. This organization includes the Heads and Chairs of all nuclear engineering departments/programs in the US and is broadly representative of our common interests. I am speaking this morning from my personal interests as a long time faculty member and former Head of the Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is the sole department of nuclear engineering in Illinois, the birthplace of the first man-made nuclear reactor and currently the state with the most operating nuclear power plants, eleven at six sites.

Last year testimony was presented before the Energy Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science by my colleague Professor James Stubbins at the Hearing on University Resources for the “Future of Nuclear Science and Engineering Programs.” That presentation delineated the interacting forces that were bringing attention to the need for support and growth of university programs in nuclear science and engineering to address the manpower needs facing the field. These forces are equally active today and point to the continued need to nurture and support these educational programs. In particular, several activities impact directly on the workload of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its need for human resources to address them in a timely manner. I will list only four:

• licensing of the Yucca Mountain high level waste repository;
• evaluation of early site permits and combined construction license applications for new nuclear power plant construction;
• continued evaluation of existing nuclear plant life extension requests: and
• evaluation for licensing of Generation IV reactor designs;