IP: Academic Meltdown WSJ OpinionJournal - July 26, 2001

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: Jamus Jerome Lim <jamus () internationaleconomics net>
> To: "'dave () farber net'" <dave () farber net>
> Subject: WSJ OpinionJournal - July 26, 2001
> Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 10:11:20 +0800
>
>
>
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> Hi Dave,
>
> In line with recent discussions on the shortage of scientific talent,
> here's something from the WSJ's editorial page, to share with IP if
> you wish.
>
> - ----
> Jamus Jerome Lim
> Regional Economic Studies
> Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
>
> Academic Meltdown
> The number of nuclear engineers isn't exactly mushrooming.
> SAMUEL GOLDMAN
>
> After decades of neglect, nuclear power may be back. The California
> energy crisis has raised awareness of how dependent the economy is on
> cheap and plentiful energy, while concerns about carbon emissions
> have spurred a search for nonpolluting alternatives. The Bush
> administration's energy proposals include plans for the first new
> nuclear generating plants in years and license extensions for
> existing facilities.
> But the restoration of nuclear power is threatened by the decline of
> the academic infrastructure that supports the technology. Across the
> country, university programs in nuclear science and engineering are
> seeing their funding cut, their faculty dispersed, their laboratories
> padlocked. There are already too few qualified nuclear engineers to
> meet current demand. If we lose the ability to train their
> successors--and to produce the theoretical innovations that have made
> America the discipline's international leader--a nuclear renaissance
> will be impossible to achieve.
> This May, Cornell University decided to close its nuclear teaching
> reactor and relocate its staff, capping a national trend that has
> seen a dozen universities take similar steps since the mid-1980s.
> "Because of the public perception after Three Mile Island and
> Chernobyl that anything nuclear is dangerous," says Kenan Unlu, the
> director of the Cornell reactor, "we are losing an educated workforce
> very quickly."
>
> - -snip-
>
> http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=95000874
>
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