Shaw establishes professorship in nuclear engineering at Clemson

Published: May 22, 2012

Timothy DeVol image by: Clemson University

CLEMSON — At first glance, it may seem an odd home for the study of nuclear engineering, alongside courses like geology, hydrogeology and environmental engineering and science. But to Timothy DeVol, there is no better place to teach the fundamentals of an industry that provides nearly 20 percent of America's electrical energy.

"We're a nuclear program imbedded in an environmental engineering and science department, and we think that’s a great place to be," said DeVol, director of Clemson University’s Center for Nuclear Environmental Engineering Sciences and Radioactive Waste Management in the department of environmental engineering and earth sciences (EEES). EEES in the College of Engineering and Science has consistently been ranked in the top 20 among public universities by U.S.News and World Report.

"Many of the issues facing the nuclear industry today have to do with radioactive waste disposal and radioactive contaminants in the environment," he said. "What better place to explore those phenomena and their impacts than where researchers understand the environment?"

A Clemson professor for more than 15 years, DeVol has been named the university's new Toshiba Endowed Professor of Nuclear Engineering, a cornerstone position in a unit charged with preparing the next generation of nuclear environmental engineers and scientists.

"Maintaining faculty with academic training in the nuclear environmental engineering and science field is critical," said Tanju Karanfil, chairman of the EEES department. "At no time in our program's history has the need for nuclear engineering scholarship been so important, not only in South Carolina, but in the industry as a whole. This professorship is a key part of our effort to strengthen that base."

The new Toshiba Endowed Professorship was funded in early 2011 as part of a $1.5 million gift in early 2011 from The Shaw Group Inc., a Baton Rouge, La.-based engineering services company ranked No. 336 among the Fortune 500 in 2011. With about 28,000 employees worldwide, Shaw provides engineering and construction services in piping, energy, chemical and both fossil fuel as well as nuclear power projects.
 
Shaw established the Clemson endowment in honor of Toshiba Corp. President and CEO Norio Sasaki. Shaw and Toshiba have collaborated in business ventures around the world, including the construction of nuclear power units in the United States and China. Shaw also has been tapped to build two new reactors in Georgia’s Plant Vogtle and two new reactors at the V.C. Summer site outside Columbia, the first new U.S. reactors to be ordered since the 1970s.

The gift from Shaw is part of Clemson’s The Will to Lead capital campaign to raise $600 million to support Clemson students and faculty with scholarships, professorships, facilities, technology and enhanced opportunities for learning and research.

Clemson’s nuclear environmental engineering and science graduate program is focused on preparing graduates who are “capable and qualified to take future leadership roles in the nuclear environmental community,” DeVol said. “The role of the nuclear environmental engineering is to ensure that activities involving nuclear materials are safe and environmentally sound.”

That leadership will be especially important for South Carolina, where the nuclear industry is burgeoning, Karanfil said. With seven licensed reactors in four operating commercial nuclear power plant locations, South Carolina ranks third in the U.S. in nuclear power generation, producing nearly 6.5 percent of the country’s nuclear-generated electricity. Nuclear power accounts for more than half of the state’s electricity, and South Carolina is a net exporter of nuclear-generated power, selling roughly 10 percent of its production to other states.

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