SCSU looks to boost nuclear program

The chairman of the Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council said he’s pleased to help South Carolina State University’s nuclear engineering program meet the demands of industry.

He recommends the university continue investing in the program.

Rick Lee, who spoke to S.C. State trustees last month, has helped the university build a plan to serve the nuclear industry with increased faculty, facilities and programs, including internship and research opportunities.

“One of the things I wanted to do was to try to support the nuclear industry because we have an enormous shortage of personnel that’s approaching. We have new, small modular reactors which are scheduled to start construction soon. There just aren’t enough people,” Lee said.

“Everybody’s aged out and there aren’t enough people studying nuclear engineering. So S.C. State has the only undergraduate program in South Carolina. So I said, ‘There is our target. That’s where we start,’” he said.

Lee said the university’s work with the Savannah River National Lab, or SRNL, team has been a stellar achievement as it works to grow its nuclear engineering program.

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded a contract to S.C. State in December 2020 for management of the SRNL. S.C. State shares in the contract with several universities as part of the Battelle Savannah River Alliance. The contract could be worth $3.8 billion over 10 years.

The alliance also includes Clemson, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Georgia and the University of South Carolina, as well as small business partners Longenecker & Associates and TechSource.

Employing approximately 1,000 staff, the Savannah River National Laboratory conducts research and development for federal agencies. SRNL provides support for the nation’s $6 billion per year waste clean-up program.

The alliance’s contract includes a five-year base with five one-year options.

“You think of a laboratory as being a place that only scientists or mathematicians would be, but 40 percent of the workforce is non-STEM. So when you think about the full scope of the academic opportunities at S.C. State, it’s almost every department that you have that could have students who ultimately work in that environment,” Lee said.

S.C. State was the first historically Black college or university to become a member of an operating entity for one of the U.S. DOE’s research laboratories.

“The biggest triumph of all was getting the university on the board for the Savannah River National Laboratory. That’s an operation of enormous importance to the United States. The lab does research in unbelievable areas such as nanobots,” Lee said.

“They look at grid stability, they do reactor fuel research. They have about 300 individual labs within the complex and about 1,000 people working down there,” he said.

An office building is planned in Aiken to support the project. It received $20 million in state funding.

“It was a commitment from the state to make sure that we won the contract. … It’s currently in design down in Aiken and will soon be sort of an office/motel for people from S.C. State to go down there to do research, get training or have conferences,” Lee said.

Lee said his work with the university included helping it secure donations for the support of its nuclear program from Savannah River Nuclear Solutions.

“Then we went to the University of South Carolina … to try to get an agreement wherein South Carolina State graduate students from the nuclear engineering program and other programs could go get a master’s degree with virtually no cost, including a stipend and other benefits. The curriculum was developed and everything’s in place for an S.C. State student who wants to go down there,” he said.

Lee said the university has gotten “commitments from the governor with regards to funding and enhancements of the program with scholarships, new research and faculty,” while also having received multiple contract opportunities from the DOE.

The university has also secured memorandums of understanding with entities such as Westinghouse and Dominion Energy, which have supplied the university with money and student internship opportunities.

Lee also reported that Dr. Musa Danjaji, chair of the university’s nuclear engineering program, is a member of the Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council, while Elbert Malone, associate provost for sponsored programs and research at S.C. State, is a member of the S.C. Health Planning Committee.

“We achieved, I think, critical mass for STEM and nuclear programs. We became the first HBCU to ever be in a voting position on one of these labs. We raised … about $7 million in funds, scholarships, internships and contracts secured by S.C. State. We won that possibly 20-year contract, where we’ll get a stipend every year out of that contract from our operations at Savannah River,” he said.

Lee also said there’s increased awareness of S.C. State as a research institution.

Lee was presented with a token of appreciation by S.C. State President Alexander Conyers.

“Rick Lee is almost single-handedly responsible for South Carolina State not just having a seat at the table when it comes to Savannah River Site, but … an equal voice when it came to the other universities at that table.

“When I was appointed as acting president and in my first meeting with the governor, the governor spoke with me strictly about Savannah River Site and how important that was in the budgeting that the governor was putting forth and our portion of that – $20 million,” Conyers said.

“We’ve got a plan laid out, how we will expand that $20 million on facilities, on faculty, on programs. Rick Lee helped us to build that,” the president said.

S.C. State is the only HBCU in the nation with a nuclear engineering program.

Moving ahead

Trustee Rodney Jenkins asked, “Where do you see us going from here? What would you suggest at this point?”

Lee said the university should think about securing other contracts at other U.S. DOE laboratory sites, but will need adequate infrastructure to do so.

“It’s kind of a golden era for HBCUs. There’s money flowing. There’s recognition of a need to incorporate them throughout industry. … Timeliness is critical with the folks at these locations. So I would suggest the senior leadership empower the folks who are running this program to be able to get the attention of department heads to make sure that the department heads step up with grant application support. It’s important to the department heads to see success. So that would be one place I would start,” he said.

Lee said adequate staffing must also be in place.

“Elbert Malone can’t do all this. It’s so big. … He needs some staff. He needs administrative staff, he needs an engineering type of individual to help evaluate the grant opportunities. I personally think you should target at least $10 million a year in new research dollars flowing into the school. As you know, about 40 percent of that goes to the bottom line of the university. So if you raise $10 million, $3.5 to $4 million goes toward operation of the school,” he said.

Lee said the implementation of an internship program could also be looked at.

“Interns are so critical to the long-term viability of S.C. State in this marketplace. If a laboratory brings in 10, 15 interns and they do a good job, where do they go the next time they want interns? They go right back to the source. … Then the other thing which I don’t think we’re doing at this time is marketing,” he said.

Lee continued, “In this day and time, if you rely just on student pay for attendance, for room and board, for tuition and such as that, you’re probably falling behind because the more industry that you bring in to do research and to bring dollars to the university, the greater the chance that they will invest in your school.

“The money from that type of activity helps to finance the development, the new equipment for the labs and those sorts of things.”

Conyers said the university will be working to increase its capacity to continue to support the work happening at SRS and beyond, including with its share of a contract with the U.S. DOE.

“It’s one thing for us to get excited because some company comes along and gives us a check for $100,000 or $200,000, but this is different. This is sustainable money with a federal contract for decades at a time. And we need to continue to build our capacity with our labs so that we don’t have to send students to North Carolina State for that last semester.

“We need to build our capacity with faculty, and we have funding to hire additional faculty. We’re advertising currently, but the market is tough (in) … getting the people that we need to help us do this. But we have a full court press on this, and we will come back and brief the board with further developments as we continue to grow this program,” he said.