Education

In the US today there is a growing need for graduate-level technical education focused on nuclear safeguards and nuclear nonproliferation. This problem has long been identified in the nuclear community as one of the critical challenges facing the world today. In response, NSSPI faculty and staff have developed at TAMU the most robust technical nonproliferation and safeguards education program in the US. This program includes:

• an accredited Master of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering focusing on Nuclear Nonproliferation;
• graduate and undergraduate courses in safeguards, nonproliferation, physical security, nuclear terrorism, and advanced monte carlo modeling;
• hands-on laboratory experience through short courses at national laboratories;
• the nation's first technical academic certificate in Nuclear Forensics; and
• tabletop exercises involving political and technical aspects of global nuclear security strategy and WMD consequence management.

Traditional classroom-based instruction for both technical and policy students is the backbone of NSSPI's educational efforts. However, we also pursue educational projects designed to reach non-traditional students outside of TAMU. NSSPI faculty and staff regularly organize and teach courses at the various national laboratories during the summer, and we recently launched the Nuclear Safeguards Education Portal (NSEP). This is an online resource providing asynchronous distance education modules to the public on a number of introductory topics important to new members of the nuclear safeguards community.

NSSPI is also heavily involved in international educational collaborations. We work to develop nuclear security technical education programs with three premier Russian universities: Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI), Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU), and Obninsk Institute for Nuclear Power Engineering (IATE). We have agreements with Mangalore University (MU) and the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) in India and have graduated two MU students from our nonproliferation M.S. program, both of whom have since returned to India. A group of students and faculty from the Nuclear Energy department at PDPU have also visited NSSPI for a course in nuclear security. NSSPI is a founding partner of the Gulf Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Institute (GNEII) in Abu Dhabi, the first regional educational institute supporting the safe, reliable, and responsible expansion of nuclear power in the Middle East.