Re: Stirring the pot

[bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Bob Flood)]

>Is Health Physics Dead? I can attest to the fact that there are a number
>of students graduating (graduated) with HP degrees, who are not able to
>get jobs. Those who do, are looking at lower starting salaries or tech
>jobs. Lay offs of fairly senior personnel have begun (right Sandy?).
>Recent HP jobs that I know of have gotten over 50 applicants, with some
>reported as many as 400. 
>
>And with federal and commercial downsizing, power deregulation, DOE hiring
>freeze and budget cuts, power plants getting older, research dollars
>getting harder to come by, the future doesn't seem much better.  
>
>Is this going to be discussed at the National Meeting? Or moreover, is
>there anything we can do? What are new students being told? Is this as
>grim as it looks?
>

I can't resist this one.

It's obvious that, with the cost-cutting frenzy in the power reactor
business and the end of the cold war mass production of weapons, the demand
for HPs is "restructuring." There are, and will be, fewer people employed
doing radiation safety stuff. But...

What kind of boost for nuclear power might come from solving the waste
disposal problem? If Ward Valley and other low level storage sites open and
Yucca Mountain begins actually storing spent fuel successfully, could this
result in a shift toward nuclear as a way to mitigate global warming? With
insurance companies citing global warming as the basis for raising rates in
areas subject to hurricanes, this issue is about to become a concern in the
average American's wallet. Could the storage sites themselves provide some
employment, and their success result in a resurgence of nuclear power?

And what happens to nuclear power if we have another TMI? With the mania to
reduce expenses on this quarter's balance sheet, is such an event more
likely now than 10 years ago?

Bob Flood
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
(415) 926-3793     bflood@slac.stanford.edu
Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are mine alone.