Department Hosts Director General of Nigeria's Atomic Energy Commission

On Wednesday, the Department of Nuclear Engineering welcomed Dr. F. (Franklin) Erepamo Osaisai, the Director-General/Chief Executive of Nigeria’s Atomic Energy Commission, to Texas A&M for an informal visit.

Dr. Osaisai came to Texas A&M to learn about our department and to explore the possibility of partnering with Texas A&M to meet their goal of rapidly building up the needed human infrastructure in Nigeria to support his country’s desire to add nuclear power plants to their grid in the future.

Dr. Osaisai was given an overview of the department by Dr. Hassan, a presentation on the department's Nuclear Safety Curriculum Development initiative by Dr. Vierow, and a presentation on the Nuclear Power Institute by Dr. Poston. Ayodeji Alanjo, a Nigerian student currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Nuclear Engineering department, was also in attendance and spoke to his own experience in our program. Dr. Osaisai spoke of his country's wish to develop native nuclear engineering departments in Nigeria to support the eventual introduction of nuclear power there and discussed possible strategies for achieving this goal. Dr. Osaisai went on to tour the campus and visit the reactor at the Nuclear Science Center during the remainder of his stay in College Station.

McDeavitt quoted in article on the future of nuclear energy

Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering Dr. Sean McDeavitt was quoted in a January 9th article in the Houston Chronicle discussing the future of nuclear energy. In the article, Dr. McDeavitt expresses the challenges that face the nuclear power push, that although there is "clearly momentum building in favor of nuclear energy," it will take a "Manhattan Project-type commitment" to solve the difficult issues that still plague the nuclear energy solution.

To read the article, go directly to the Houston Chronicle article.