NEI Nuclear Notes

What's on your reading list? Over the course of the history of this blog, I've often written posts slugged, " Another Environmentalist for Nuclear Energy ." In recent years, I've gotten out of the habit, given that when you see prominent names like James Hansen , Stuart Brand and Bill Gates all speak on behalf of the technology, that headline ought not to be a surprise any longer. But given some reading I did earlier today, perhaps that shouldn't be the case. If the findings of a new study are accurate, academia is doing its level best to make sure the environmental professionals of tomorrow are exposed only to a narrow point of view that excludes nuclear energy from the global solutions toolbox. Over at The Conversation , Matthew Nisbet , a professor of communications at Northeastern University, tells the story of Jacqueline Ho , an environmental studies graduate who recently conducted a study into how major colleges and university teach environment...

Notice anything about the green bars in the graphic at right?  What caught our eye was the huge bar for "Nuclear power tech" in Texas.  So what's the story?  Is everything bigger in Texas? The graphic appeared in the Wall Street Journal on June 24 in an article on the value of two-year and four-year college degrees.  Authors Mark Peters and Douglas Belkin cited recent studies by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the American Institutes for Research .  The green bar that caught our eye is based on data presented in the AIR report.  It shows the first-year earnings of graduates of Associate's degree programs in nuclear technology in Texas as averaging more than $98,000.  The report is not clear about the specific jobs tied to the reported first-year earnings by nuclear technology graduates in Texas.  (There are two nuclear power plants in Texas : Comanche Peak in Glen Rose , and South Texas Project in Bay City , offering thousands ...

North Carolina Governor Mike Easley (D) and state officials announced today that GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy will expand its campus in Wilmington, NC. The move will add 900 new jobs to the area over the next five years. Via The News & Observer : He [Jim Fain, N.C. Commerce Secretary] predicted the GE expansion would have "a significant halo effect" in the Southeastern region of the state. GE-Hitachi plans to invest $704 million at its New Hanover County campus and pay average annual salaries of $85,000. The Hanover County average wage is $33,226 a year. The company plans to add new manufacturing, training, simulation and testing facilities at its 1,300-acre campus.

John Murawski at the News & Observer provided some insights on the opportunities for young workers to fill the gap of the nuclear industry's retiring professionals: Today the average age of the nation's nuclear workers is about 50. Many will be eligible to start retirement at 55. Within five years, about 35 percent of the specialists who have been running U.S. nuclear plants for the past quarter-century -- about 19,600 people -- are expected to begin a mass retirement. With the explosion in job opportunity, nuclear professionals are mobile again after years of stagnating in a low-turnover industry. ... "The market is very competitive," Scarola said. "It's not uncommon to make a job offer before the Christmas vacation to a student who won't graduate until May." ... To keep up with job demand, university nuclear engineering departments have quadrupled enrollment in the past decade to about 2,000 students today. ... Optimism is high at N.C. State, w...

Our CEO, Skip Bowman, guest stars.