The Advanced Nuclear 3S Education And Training Program Of Tokyo Tech

Japan has a commercial-scale nuclear fuel cycle complex including a reprocessing plant, an enrichment plant, radioactive waste disposal facilities, and a MOX fabrication plant. The needs for human resources in nuclear material management and related regulations are growing for nuclear security and non-proliferation as well as nuclear safety. Nuclear engineering programs of universities and graduate schools in Japan, however, had rarely provided comprehensive education in nuclear material management even for increasing needs with accumulation of nuclear materials. Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) has started a nuclear safety and security education program in 2011 to develop global leaders with communication skills and social literacy as well as technical specializations in key areas of Nuclear 3S (Safety, Security, and Safeguards). This program provides a specially designed curriculum from multiple disciplines for selected graduate students in nuclear engineering. In 2017, Tokyo Tech established the Advanced Nuclear 3S Education and Training (ANSET) program, which is financially supported by the Nuclear Regulation Authority of Japan. The ANSET program aims to foster the next generation of leaders who will be capable of grasping nuclear security and safeguards, and taking the lead in 3S with insight. This program is targeted at not only students specialized in nuclear engineering, but also students in other fields including part-time students, and open to young professionals as well. Building on Tokyo Tech’s nuclear engineering program, the ANSET program provides students with an advanced 3S Curriculum (3S Lectures, 3S Exercises, and 3S Internships), which educates them in 3S professionalism, insight and leadership, and practical skills. The curriculum is systemized to organically integrate collaborative relationships of 3S, and provide more practical hands-on exercises to build response capacity to social needs of nuclear security. Since 2018, more than 330 students have taken courses of the curriculum and 11 students have received the certificate of curriculum completion in 2019. The hope for this program is to contribute to the nuclear human resource development in the next generation to cope with the difficult consequences of nuclear crises such as nuclear disaster, nuclear terrorism, and nuclear proliferation.