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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