EDUCATION OF FUTURE NUCLEAR ENGINEERS.

SEC. 3123. EDUCATION OF FUTURE NUCLEAR ENGINEERS.(a) Findings.—Congress makes the following findings:(1) The Department of Defense and the Department of Energy depend on the specialized expertise of nuclear engineers who support the development and sustainment of technologies including naval reactors, strategic weapons, and nuclear power plants.(2) Experts estimate that over 25 percent of the approximately 58,000 workers in the nuclear power industry in the United States will be eligible to retire within 5 years, representing both a huge loss of institutional memory and a potential national security crisis.(3) This shortfall of workers is exacerbated by reductions to the University Reactor Infrastructure and Education Assistance program, which trains civilian nuclear scientists and engineers. The defense and civilian nuclear industries are interdependent on a limited number of educational institutions to produce their workforce. A reduction in nuclear scientists and engineers trained in the civilian sector may result in a further loss of qualified personnel for defense-related research and engineering.(4) The Department of Defense’s successful Science, Math and Research for Transformation (SMART) scholarship-for-service program serves as a good model for a targeted scholarship or fellowship program designed to educate future scientists at the postsecondary and postgraduate levels.(b) Report on Education of Future Nuclear Engineers.—(1) Study.—The Secretary of Energy shall study the feasibility and merit of establishing a targeted scholarship or fellowship program to educate future nuclear engineers at the postsecondary and postgraduate levels.120 STAT. 2512(2) Report required.—The President shall submit to the congressional defense committees, at the same time that the budget for fiscal year 2008 is submitted under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, a report on the study conducted by the Secretary of Energy under paragraph (1).