Every semester, NSSPI, along with staff at the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory (ORNL), provides the opportunity for students
to complete a week-long practical course at ORNL's Safeguards
Laboratory (SL). The course alternates between hosting
undergraduate and graduate nuclear engineering students each
semester. This activity helps the students understand and
appreciate basic material control and accounting technologies
focused specifically on detecting and measuring special nuclear
material using NDA techniques. The week-long class was first
developed by TAMU and ORNL-SL staff in the Spring 2007 semester. It
borrowed heavily from the vast experience ORNL-SL staff had
obtained in providing training courses on NDA techniques to
professionals from various international institutions. Working
closely with the ORNL staff, NSSPI has coordinated the graduate
version of the course to focus around topics the students learn as
part of the Detection and Measurement of Special Nuclear Material
course.
The time spent at the SL for students complements the
theoretical education of the students. Understandably, other
universities have followed the example set forth by TAMU in this
venue, and the ORNL staff has expressed the great successes of
collaborating with universities within their region and beyond.
Further, in recent courses, students from the TAMU Bush School of
Government and Public Service studying nonproliferation and
international security and other foreign relations areas have also
been hosted in the SL course at ORNL. This has provided policy
students the opportunities to better understand the limitations and
applications of various technologies as applied to safeguards and
nuclear security and fosters enhanced communication between the
future technical and policy experts. This integration of policy and
technical students has been very fruitful for the students
attending this course.
In Fall of 2012, the course included participants from
Penn State and MIT, allowing TAMU students to interact with other
future nonproliferation professionals from other
institutions.
More information on recent
short courses -->
