Graduate Certificate in Nuclear Packaging at the University of Nevada, Reno

In 2015, the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Mechanical Engineering Department began offering a 9-credit, regionally accredited Graduate Certificate in Nuclear Packaging (GCNP). The certificate program’s educational objectives are to provide the necessary applied knowledge and skills that mechanical, materials, or nuclear engineers require to be successful as nuclear packaging designers, analysts, fabricators or users. For packaging engineers, designers and fabricators, this includes acquiring an overall familiarity with relevant Code of Federal regulations for the transport and storage of radioactive materials, including spent nuclear fuel and high level waste, using a graded approach for packaging structures, systems, and components. It also includes understanding how to apply the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code related to nuclear packaging, knowing how to apply Quality Assurance methods to package design and operating procedures, and being able to prepare a Safety Analysis Report for Packaging (SARP). For package users, this includes knowing how to enact all operating procedures, acceptance tests and maintenance, and quality assurance requirements prescribed in the SARP and conditions of approvals in the Certificate of Compliance issued by the domestic and international regulatory authorities. For both groups, it also includes gaining added depth in those required topics, and/or a breadth beyond those topics, to support certificate holder advancement in the nuclear packaging industry. The GCNP courses draw heavily on nuclear packaging safety content that experts at Argonne, Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge, Sandia and Savannah River National Laboratories have developed and taught for over 20 years with support from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Packaging and Certification Program (PCP). The national laboratories continue to teach the GCNP required courses, which present the foundational information, and several elective courses. UNR also offers several elective courses. The first certificate was awarded in 2017, and 47 students have enrolled in certificate courses. In this paper, we will provide highlights of recent and future GCNP program directions.