An international group of nuclear power engineers from Egypt, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Russia successfully graduated from Tomsk Polytechnic University. Students studied the design and operation of NPPs at Butakov School of Energy and Power Engineering.
This year a total of 48 nuclear international students including 13 Egyptians, 10 Vietnamese, 2 students from Kazakhstan and 23 Russians successfully completed the “NPPs: Design, Operation and Engineering” program.
The training lasted 5.5 years and was held in English and Russian. Egyptian students were educated under a joint program with the Egyptian-Russian University: first they studied general theoretical issues of natural sciences in their homeland for three years, followed by training in specialized disciplines at Butakov School of Energy and Power Engineering entirely in English. The rest of the students took the program in Russian, and an additional course in the Russian language was arranged for foreigners.
“There are about ten programs in the field of nuclear energy in various universities in Russia, but this program is unique in its complexity. We are preparing the nuclear power elite not for reactors, turbines, steam generators and other segments of the industry. Our graduates are able to manage the full cycle of NPP”, explains the coordinator of the main educational program Sergey Lavrinenko.
Students studied not only the fundamental foundations of physics and kinetics, calculations of neutron-physical processes, but also the principles of design, operation and engineering of NPPs. As part of the agreement between Tomsk Polytechnic University and National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, foreign students underwent practical training at the resource center in Volgodonsk. As final qualification works, students presented projects covering all areas of nuclear power, including the design of new NPPs, improving the efficiency and operation of reactor and heat exchange equipment, steam generators, condensers, turbines and radioactive waste disposal processes.
“Since the graduates have comprehensive knowledge of the operation of the entire NPP, the demand for them is very high. There are up to four job opportunities per graduate of this program in 2020. The technical academy of the State Corporation Rosatom alone received an application for 28 people. This shows a high level of trust in the professional training at TPU”, notes Sergey Lavrinenko.
The recruitment of students from Egypt and Vietnam was carried out according to quotas at the expense of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, and the graduates of the program will be able to find employment at SC Rosatom enterprises under construction in Egypt and Vietnam, as well as nuclear energy research institutes.