After 20 years of flat growth, America’s demand for electricity is exploding, creating demand for safe, scalable nuclear reactor technology. Small modular reactors and microreactors are emerging to meet that need and driving a national nuclear energy resurgence, but there is a severe shortage of nuclear-literate engineers, managers and policymakers.
Three powerhouse public research universities — Arizona State University, Purdue University and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville — have united to respond to this gap in a flexible, trilateral alliance: the New Nuclear Academic Consortium. The NNAC aims to tackle the workforce shortage head-on by establishing a comprehensive regional and national ecosystem that prepares the next generation of graduates to deploy, manage and scale the new nuclear economy.
“ASU is proud to partner with Purdue and UT-Knoxville in launching this consortium,” ASU President Michael M. Crow said. “ASU has become synonymous with excellence and access at scale, and we look forward to partnering with two of the leading nuclear engineering programs in the country, working together to help the nation.”
THINGS TO DO: 10 quirky restaurants you have to visit in Arizona
Several factors contribute to the nuclear industry workforce shortage. Much of the current workforce is approaching retirement, and many nuclear projects are in remote areas, making it difficult to attract qualified applicants. Traditional nuclear engineering programs produce specialized PhDs and design engineers, but the industry requires a broader range of professionals fluent in systems engineering, grid integration, advanced thermodynamics, supply chains and safety regulations to execute the deployment of potentially thousands of decentralized reactors.
The three founding consortium members bring unique strengths and capabilities to the nuclear sector while also spanning three geographic regions of the United States. Each of these nationally ranked public research institutions is home to a large engineering program and contributes strong connections to and throughout the nuclear engineering industry.
The NNAC concept originated at ASU, anchored by the university’s scale in online and technology-enabled education — including EdPlus (ASU’s digital learning division), the Decision Theater’s data-driven policy modeling and Dreamscape Learn’s immersive curriculum tools. ASU’s primary initial contribution will be a suite of three to five undergraduate micro certificates, launching this year, that will equip mechanical, civil, electrical, materials and systems engineering students with nuclear fluency.
In its role, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville contributes a top-ranked nuclear engineering department within the Tickle College of Engineering, offering standalone bachelor’s, master’s and PhD nuclear programs and seamless research integration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. East Tennessee is also at the epicenter of the nuclear resurgence with more than 150 nuclear-related companies within 50 miles of Knoxville, including the Tennessee Valley Authority, which is moving toward construction of a small modular reactor at the Clinch River site and the Kairos Hermes 2 demonstration project.
Purdue will leverage its premier nuclear engineering program and Purdue University Reactor Number One (PUR-1), the nation’s first and only U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) facility licensed for a fully digital safety and control system. Purdue’s partnership with the NRC has flourished for more than 60 years, dating back to the university’s original operating license granted in 1962 and its renewal in 2016. In 1997, the NRC established the Institute of Thermal-Hydraulics at Purdue with the objective of providing broad technical expertise and performing reactor safety research for the NRC. The commission also has funded fellowships for Purdue graduate students and scholarships to undergraduates pursuing nuclear engineering degrees.
“The future of new nuclear energy is unfolding in front of us, and the nation will need more graduates who are prepared to enter the nuclear industry,” said Kyle Squires, senior vice provost for engineering, computing and technology at ASU and dean of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. “This new consortium brings together three top public universities, each with tremendous expertise and reach, to increase the number of engineers prepared to work in the new nuclear industry and create courses and micro credentials that can be accessed by engineers at any U.S. university.”
The operational lifeblood of NNAC as an academic consortium relies on direct, actionable, multi-institution alignments.
One example of a promising strategic bilateral intersection is the Purdue-ASU project to build high-fidelity, interactive digital twins of PUR-1. Purdue provides licensing skills and the reactor data, physics models and expertise used to develop its in-house digital twin model of PUR-1, while ASU contributes its own digital twin knowledge, as well as its digital scale and immersive software engines to host and distribute virtual training models. Beyond potential educational applications like making PUR-1 digitally accessible to other colleges and universities, these simulations could stand in for traditional hands-on operations, offering a path toward innovative regulatory certifications.
Once launched, the consortium plans to invite additional research universities to join over the following six to 12 months. These programs could adopt or augment consortium-built micro certificates for their undergraduate students, pursue jointly funded research or link to PUR-1 via digital twins.
