Volume 7, Number 3
April 2010

University of Missouri Student Chapter Safeguards Education Workshop

By James Cole, Chapter President

The University Of Missouri Chapter of INMM held a workshop called, “A Multidisciplinary Workshop to Train the Next Generation Safeguards Advocate,” Feb. 9-12, 2010, with support and assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy, NA-243, ORNL staff and the INMM Central Chapter.

The workshop focused on utilizing interdisciplinary resources inherent in a university setting to accomplish the goal of addressing the many facets of international nuclear safeguards, nonproliferation and security education. Professors and students from the Universities of Michigan, Missouri, Missouri Science and Technology, Penn State, Tennessee-Knoxville, Texas A&M, and the Monterey Institute of International Studies attended and representatives from Brookhaven National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge  National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest  National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Savannah River National Laboratory were on hand for a total of 77 participants.

Because new courses, certificates and degree options can be logistically challenging to develop, one goal was to evaluate the existing educational infrastructure at universities to explore how current programs and courses can contribute to the education of safeguards/nonproliferation practitioners.

This workshop incorporated faculty and students from universities where nuclear-related programs or research exist and whose core discipline lies outside of nuclear engineering because expertise in a great variety of disciplines is needed to address complex 21st century challenges and are crucial for developing a robust workforce. We included individuals from areas as diverse as communications, policy, intelligence, geospatial technology and a variety of engineering disciplines.

Expert practitioners from the national laboratories offered presentations on international nonproliferation and security subject areas to students. University faculty described their disciplines to students and other faculty to assist in uncovering these multidisciplinary safeguards education pathways and collaborative opportunities.

Students then participated in an activity to suggest ways to integrate the knowledge, skills and functional proficiencies needed to produce a competent safeguards professional into existing coursework within universities. This crosswalk from multidisciplinary educational collaboration to necessary practitioner skill set can be used as a basis for developing this type of educational framework at other universities and national labs.

The workshop was a great success. A career fair was held to provide students information about laboratory opportunities, networking opportunities fostered communication between previously unaffiliated faculty and practitioners, and many students were introduced to safeguards science for the first time. Encouraging such interdisciplinary recruitment to the field will help to ensure successful development of the next generation of nuclear safeguards practitioners.