News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Tennessee Higher Education Commission approved Tennessee Tech’s new program in nuclear engineering Thursday.
The bachelor’s degree anticipated to begin this fall with a starting group of 10 students. Fifteen new courses are being developed for the program.
A survey from February 2023 of 265 engineering students at Tech showed that sixty-five percent of them would have considered majoring in nuclear engineering if the program was available when they enrolled, while forty-three percent said they would still consider it at the time.
THEC approved the program proposal during its quarterly meeting Thursday. The only other bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering offered in the state is at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The program is said to have been developed in part due to Governor Bill Lee’s efforts to advance nuclear energy across the state. Several letters of support were written for the program from different engineering and energy companies across the nation.
