Langley to be the first school to use nuclear power curriculum

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Friday, October 29, 2004 | Amy McConnell Schaarsmith

[Willie Green]

As part of the Bush administration's effort to boost the nuclear power industry, physics students at Langley High School will become the first in the country to use a new curriculum from the U.S. Department of Energy that promotes nuclear energy.

With memories of the 1979 near-disaster at Three Mile Island fading, federal energy officials said last week they hope the new curriculum will encourage more students to pursue careers in nuclear engineering -- a field energy officials expect to grow.

"No new nuclear power plants have been built for many years, but now because of increasing oil and natural gas prices, utilities are looking to build some new plants in the next few years," said William Magwood IV, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and director of the U.S. Energy Department's Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology. "They're looking for people to work in those plants and design those plants, and there you are."

[mountaineer]

No doubt, a lot of nuclear scientists will come from Langley High School.

[goldfinch]

It is about time. The attitude about nuclear power in the United States has lagged behind the time for way too long. The reaction to Three Mile Island was so overblown by the media and the Hollywood Left that it was impossible to have a rational conversation about the role nuclear power should play in our national energy policy. It set the United States back a decade or two in reaching the goal of energy independence...resulting in way higher energy bills this coming winter.

So smile and thank the left-wing radicals the next time you write a check to your local utility company.