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Midlands Technical College to partner in NSF grant for Regional Center for Nuclear Education and Training

Submitted by: Amanda K. Taylor on Aug 11, 2011 at 2:57 pm Tagged with: Higher Education, Nuclear, Technical College, Workforce Development Source: Midlands Technical College

Center to meet critical demand for skilled nuclear technicians

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $3.1 million grant to establish the Regional Center for Nuclear Education and Training (RCNET), linking seven Southeastern states including South Carolina.

Midlands Technical College will lead SC’s efforts in this collaboration that seeks to meet the critical demand for skilled nuclear technicians in a unified, systematic way. South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G); Aiken, Denmark, Florence-Darlington and Orangeburg-Calhoun technical colleges; and Spartanburg Community College will also be key supporters in SC.

Representing the center of the nuclear renaissance, RCNET consists of 15 colleges, three universities, and 27 industry partners across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

RCNET’s main goals are to create a comprehensive curriculum for technician tracks, develop or enhance training programs at the regional colleges, provide career paths to higher education and undergraduate research, and provide remote access to training components. This regional center will serve as a training resource, curriculum repository, and expertise resource, while improving communications and collaboration.

In the past five years, 21 applications for 30 new reactors have been submitted to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Half of the applications for new reactors are in the Southeastern US, and four of the first to be permitted since 1979 are under construction in South Carolina and Georgia. This new activity coupled with a nuclear workforce that is close to retirement age has created a timely and critical need to train a twenty-first century nuclear energy workforce.

Over the next two decades, nuclear workforce needs are expected to exceed 40,000 trained personnel, and more than half of this need is in the Southeastern US. A single new nuclear plant employs 2000-3000 people during construction, creates 400-700 permanent positions, and corresponds to approximately $430 million for the local economy. By coordinating and supporting a network of dynamic training facilities capable of scaling up to meet the energy industry’s needs, RCNET will reduce the shortage of technicians and operators.

MTC currently works closely with SCE&G, the Shaw Group and Westinghouse in preparing students for employment at the V.C. Summer site in Fairfield County.

Midlands Technical College is a comprehensive, multi-campus, public, two-year college serving the primary region of Richland, Lexington and Fairfield counties of South Carolina. The college enrolls approximately 18,000 credit students annually, and provides continuing education to 30,000 individuals and hundreds of area businesses each year. MTC is the largest provider of transfer students to the University of South Carolina. www.midlandstech.edu.