Starting this fall semester, the University of Wyoming (UW) will be offering a nuclear energy certificate for undergraduate and graduate students.
To earn the certification, students must complete 15 credits from all new classes, which introduce the basics of nuclear physics, reactor design, law, and economics in nuclear energy.
Wyoming Western Community College (WWCC) is also ribbon-cutting its own Nuclear Science certification and an associate's degree starting this fall. The state gave WWCC nearly $2 million to help the program get off the ground.
These programs didn’t come out of a void. Throughout Wyoming, nuclear energy projects continue to expand. What is attracting companies is the state's preexisting energy infrastructure and uranium resources. Beyond energy production, one company plans to manufacture reactors, and others plan to expand mining, and these projects need qualified college graduates to fill the new positions.
”We took a look to see what is going to be necessary to serve the workforce needs of these new industries and where are the gaps between what's available in our current curriculum and the jobs that are needed,” said Tara Righetti, co-director of UW’s Nuclear Energy Research Center (NERC) and one of the certificate’s creators.
Righetti said after interviewing people in industry and from other universities with nuclear programs, they decided to make a flexible certificate that could fit the many types of jobs the sector requires.
“In fact, the majority of technical business jobs they were hiring for were not in nuclear engineering but would require some specialized technical expertise,” said Righetti.
This led NERC to decide against making a degree, at least for now.
“We wanted to focus on preparing graduates of our existing programs to enter the nuclear workforce before looking at adding new programs,” she said. “ And then, if interest is strong, I'm hoping we'll be able to grow that and continue to have more courses and electives in the certificate program and on campus generally.”
Righetti is hopeful that nuclear energy will also keep Wyoming talent within the state.
“To address the problem of out migration, where graduates feel like they need to leave the state to find these kinds of very exciting opportunities in emerging tech,” she said.
TerraPower has set up internships for UW students to help get them into the field. Mattie Nicholson, a representative of TerraPower, said in an email that “developing a workforce pipeline is a key priority.”
Even though the campus doesn’t have a nuclear energy department, Righetti said there is research and talent on campus.
“There are lots of researchers in different departments across campus who are either doing work that is directly related to nuclear or is nuclear adjacent,” she said. “Our goal was to build up those internal capabilities.”
Current research at UW ranges from identifying uranium reserves to social work, such as how to get the public interested in nuclear energy.
In 2023, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission awarded the NERC $600,000 for nuclear research across campus, but also for hiring a faculty member for the certificate program. According to Righetti, the university is already on the lookout for another faculty hire.
“ The workforce demand in industry is today, but where we think it will be in, you know, 2027, 2030, as these new technologies start coming onto the market, I think we [will] have a curriculum that provides both foundational classes, but also is making sure that it’s addressing where the need and demand is,” Righetti said.
