Nuclear Facilities Experience

Center for Nuclear Security Science and Policy Initiatives

Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station

Nuclear Facilities Experience

NFE partipants in front of the Heysham Visitor center

The International Nuclear Facilities Experience

The International Nuclear Facilities Experience (INFE) is as a unique opportunity for graduate students from U.S. universities and early career professional from U.S. national laboratories to visit nuclear fuel cycle facilities in other countries and discuss applied safeguards and security measures with actual practitioners and facility operators. Participants can see first-hand how safeguards are implemented at various types of facilities, while networking with their peers around the U.S. and experiencing travel to a foreign country.

INFEs can take place in Europe, Japan, South Korea, or the UK and generally include visits to different types of fuel cycle facilities, cultural experiences, and interaction with a university in the host country:

Europe INFE Highlights

  • Historical experience: Communism Museum and nuclear bunker tour (Prague, Czech Republic)
  • Visits to facilities: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Headquarters and Seibersdorf Laboratories (Austria); Jaslovske Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant (Slovakia); Research Center Rez; Framatome Lingen Fuel Fabrication Facility (Germany); URENCO Nederlands Uranium Enrichment Facility (Netherlands); European Commission Joint Research Center (Germany).

Japan INFE Highlights

  • Historical experience: Tour of the Hiroshima Peace Park and Peace Memorial Museum and presentation by Hiroshima bombing survivor.
  • Visits to facilities: the Plutonium Fuel Development Facility; the Tokai Reprocessing Center; and the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant.
  • Interaction with students and faculty from the Academy of Global Nuclear Safety and Security program at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
  • Visit to the Fukushima Daiichi Power Station Site and presentation on the cleanup efforts.

South Korea INFE Highlights

  • Historical experience: Tour of Korean Demilitarized Zone.
  • Visits to facilities: the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) Nuclear Fuel Company; Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI); Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant; KORAD L/ILW Disposal Centre; Doosan Enerbility.
  • Educational exchange with faculty and students in the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST).

UK INFE Highlights

  • Historical experience: Bletchley Park tour.
  • Visits to facilities: the URENCO UK uranium enrichment plant in Capenhurst; the Sellafield Nuclear site in Seascale, Cumbria, which includes the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) and the decommissioned Calder Hall nuclear power station; Heysham Nuclear Power Station in Heysham, Lancashire; and Westinghouse’s Fuel Fabrication facility in Springfields, UK.
  • Educational exchange with faculty and students in the KCL College of War Studies’s Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS).