MANHATTAN -- For more than four decades, Kansas State University's nuclear reactor has generated a succession of valuable scientific research projects -- from neutron radiography to food irradiation experiments.
But in the last two years, the facility has become known on campus for another kind of generation -- job generation for graduates of KSU's department of mechanical and nuclear engineering.
According to reactor manager Mike Whaley, the national demand for nuclear engineers could easily double in the next 10 years -- up from the 500 job openings that will be available to new engineering graduates nationally this spring.
"If there's any way you can get that word out, we really would like to catch the high school students out there," Whaley said. "Besides, nuclear engineering is not too complicated, it pays well and it's kind of fun."
Five years ago, the nuclear engineering program at KSU appeared destined for the scrap heap, based on alarming student enrollment declines, Whaley said.
Undergraduate enrollment in the nuclear program had dropped from a pre-1980s peak of 60 students to fewer than 15 in 1997. Currently, about 40 students are majoring in the department's nuclear studies option, while 300 are enrolled in the more traditional mechanical engineering curriculum.
Whaley attributes much of the impetus for the sudden nuclear studies turnaround to the Bush administration's push for more atomic power plants in the United States as a way of staving off electrical power shortages in upcoming decades.
Whaley whets the appetites of prospective students by pointing out that starting salaries for new nuclear engineers with bachelor's degrees are likely to top out at about $45,000 next spring.
"Most people think if you're a nuclear engineer, you're making bombs or making electricity," he said. "But with the nuclear option here you get to choose what you want to do in fields like medical therapy and imaging. Frankly, it's a parent's dream."
KSU nuclear engineering junior Clell Solomon, of Wichita, decided to enter the nuclear engineering program after taking a tour of the campus reactor as a high school student.
"I was visiting the campus and when I saw the reactor, it was like, 'This is where I'm going to school,'" Solomon said.
Although Solomon won't graduate until spring 2005, he has already earned a license as an operator of the K-State reactor, a TRIGA Mark II model that went online in October 1962.
"It's just neat to conceptualize what you're really doing," Solomon said. "You're controlling all these subatomic reactions that you can't even see, and to have all that power, it's just really amazing."
The K-State reactor normally operates at about 10 watts of power -- about the equivalent of a home refrigerator light bulb. However, short bursts of power inside the underwater core can go as high as 250 kilowatts, resulting in a dazzling blue glow to observers, Solomon said.
The facility provides for a wide range of research activities, including irradiation tests to destroy insect pests and bacteria in food and grain products.
The reactor also is set up for the production of radioactive isotopes, which have provided medical breakthroughs in the treatment and early detection of cancer in humans.
The reactor's neutron radiography capabilities have been used to test images of corrosion or small cracks inside metal structures, such as jet engine turbines, water movement through concrete and insect tunnels in soil.
"Operating a nuclear reactor is a lot like driving a car. The first time you take the wheel, you're really afraid you might make a mistake. And there's definitely a learning curve associated with it. The more you do it, the better you get -- just like with a car. Is operating a reactor easier than playing video games? A lot easier."
-- Kansas State University nuclear engineering student Clell Solomon, of Wichita
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