With the declining numbers of students earning doctorates in nuclear and radiochemistry in the United States - an annual average of five - chemists are beginning to address ways to reignite interest among a new generation of students.
The dwindling number is hardly sufficient to fulfill the nation's ever-growing needs in nuclear power, nuclear medicine and industry, or to carry out the programs of the U.S. Department of Energy, according to Florida State University chemist Andreas Kronenberg.
At FSU however, Kronenberg and chemistry Professor Gregory Choppin are writing a series of papers for the American Chemical Society that address "How Can Young Students Be Attracted to Nuclear Chemistry and Radiochemistry."
"Faculty who teach nuclear and radiochemistry used to think that students would come to them, but we have now realized that we must go to them to get them interested in pursuing careers in these fields," Kronenberg said.
From distance learning modules that more easily reach students in far-flung countries, to Web sites specifically designed to appeal to high school students, Kronenberg and Choppin are advocating proactive methods to show young students how widely applicable the fields of nuclear and radiochemistry can be to a host of other sciences, including engineering, medicine and space exploration.
"We want to show young students that radiochemistry is still a very active and interesting field, and that radioactivity isn't always dangerous," Kronenberg said. To mitigate a potential fear factor, he added that students, even from other disciplines, should take part in laboratory courses to learn proper safety procedures for laboratory work, because small amounts of radioactive contaminations are easy to detect.
Kronenberg added that students should know there are still many pieces of basic research and data missing from the nuclear and radiochemistry puzzles that would afford an even better understanding of the world. The answers to such questions will require international collaborations that cover a broad range of interdisciplinary research, from chemistry and physics, to geology and hydrology.
"Through brochures and posters, we can present to students the many research opportunities available in these fields," Kronenberg said.
In their research, Kronenberg and Choppin found that the majority of nuclear and radiochemistry faculty in the U.S. are over 50.
"As nuclear chemists in university chemistry departments retire, they are rarely replaced," Kronenberg said.
"It was thought that, if nuclear and radiochemists were not educated in the U.S., they could always be brought in from other countries, but we are finding that their numbers are declining worldwide," he said. "It also was thought that, perhaps, there wouldn't be as strong a need for radiochemistry in the future. That, too, was an incorrect assumption."
With a decline in the number of nuclear and radiochemists being educated in the U.S., a deficit will continue to develop in the number of people with the proper expertise to police the proliferation of weapons-grade uranium, plutonium and other radioactive substances, who understand how it should be handled and stored, and who have the expertise to decontaminate and remediate areas that served as weapons production facilities.
To illustrate the continuing need for an experienced workforce in real world terms, Kronenberg said DOE reports and discussions in Congress indicate hundreds of billions of dollars would have to be spent over the 30 to 50 years necessary to remediate the 114 facilities in the U.S. alone that store a total of 344 million liters of high radioactive waste. Such remediation must be carried out by properly educated scientists.
Nuclear and radiochemists also are needed to ensure the adequacy of nuclear waste storage sites, such as Yucca Mountain, the site proposed by the U.S. Congress as the nation's storage site for highly radioactive nuclear waste.
Kronenberg is writing about the situation of radiochemistry education in the U. S. for the journal of the German Chemical Society and an article about nuclear energy in the U. S. for the German newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung." Choppin recently served as the North American representative at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, where one expert from each continent discussed the declining numbers of radiochemistry students.
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