Graduate Certificate In Transportation Security And Safeguards At The University Of Nevada, Reno

Nuclear and other radioactive materials are used for large-scale electricity generation without greenhouse gas production, advanced medical diagnostics and treatments, food sterilization, sophisticated measurement technologies, national defense, and other sophisticated technologies. For society to benefit from these uses, safe and secure packaging and procedures that protect people and the environment during the transport of these materials must be developed, approved by a regulatory authority, and employed. In 2020, the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Mechanical Engineering Department began offering the 9-unit Graduate Certificate in Transportation Security and Safeguards (GCTSS). It developed this certificate with support from the U.S. Department of Energy's Packaging Certification Program (DOE PCP), in coordination with Argonne National Laboratory. The purpose of the GCTSS is to provide a curriculum in transportation security and safeguards for nuclear and other radioactive materials that complements graduate programs in Mechanical, Materials, Nuclear and related engineering fields, and is more applied-knowledge-based than research based. The goals of the certificate program are to (a) to encourage students to complete a comprehensive curriculum in this discipline that has both depth and breadth, (b) provide a graduate-level curriculum designed to give students an advantage when seeking employment or advancement in this and related fields, and (c) help the nuclear and transportation industries train and advance current and potential employees. The purpose, goals, and format of the GCTSS are similar to the UNR Graduate Certificate in Nuclear Packaging, which UNR started offering in 2016. The four required courses, and many of the electives, are offered by experienced subject matter experts at Argonne, Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge, Sandia, and Savannah River National Laboratories. From time to time, the labs offer these courses online, at UNR, or at other sites. Predecessors to the GCTSS classes have been taken by technical staff from nuclear industries, national labs, and government agencies from within and outside the United States.