Visiting university students tuned in for knowledge at the "Nuclear Short Course" taught at INEEL recently. The students will receive credit at their universities for studying the Homeland Security applications of nuclear science.

Contact: David Nigg, dnw@inel.gov

Some 20 university students attended a short course at the INEEL in July that covered topics they likely would not have significant direct exposure to at their individual universities.

They were introduced to uses of nuclear science in Homeland Security applications. Experts from several of the Department of Energy's national laboratories, including INEEL, taught the topics.

The INEEL, Argonne National Laboratory-West and Idaho State University hosted the short course July 26-30. It was offered through the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy Innovations in Nuclear Engineering Infrastructure and Education (INIE) program.

The program funds -- through a grant -- the Western Nuclear Science Alliance (WNSA), a group of five Western universities. (Other university consortia are funded in other areas of the country.) Several Western DOE national laboratories provide representatives to an advisory board that works closely with the WNSA universities to ensure close coordination with the DOE laboratory system.

David Nigg, Ph.D.

David Nigg, INEEL manager of Nuclear and Radiological Sciences and the Laboratory's representative on the WNSA advisory board, said the short course developed under the WNSA project "offers scientific and engineering instruction in specialized topical areas where it generally would be impractical for a university to offer a regular course, but where it is still important for students to get some exposure to the subject."

The students will receive course credit from their universities. University Alliance members are Oregon State, Washington State and Idaho State and the University of California at Berkeley and Davis. Collaborating national laboratories are INEEL, Argonne National Laboratory-West, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.