LA PLATA, Md. (Sept. 20, 2010)—The College of Southern Maryland will celebrate the opening of its new Center for Nuclear Energy Training (CNET) on Tuesday. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at the CNET facility at 2192 Solomons Island Road in Prince Frederick—four miles south of the Prince Frederick Campus.
Calvert County’s Board of County Commissioners will join CSM officials as well as representatives from Constellation Energy Nuclear Group LLCSM (CENG) at the ceremony. The event is also open to the public.
The new center will host classes for CSM's new "Nuclear Engineering Technology: Instrumentation and Control (NET)" associate’s degree program. In partnership with the Nuclear Energy Institute and CENG—a joint venture of Constellation Energy and EDF—CSM has developed the associate degree program to meet the workforce needs for technicians in southern Maryland and at the CENGSM Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby.
A new reactor is expected to create approximately 400 new permanent jobs after its completion, according to UniStar Nuclear Energy, a project developer for the proposed third reactor at Calvert Cliffs, according to a company press release. CSM’s NET program will train area workers for these jobs, not only in Southern Maryland, but nationwide.
CSM is working on the design of a second building on its Prince Frederick Campus which will include dedicated classroom and lab space for the NET program.
For more information on the NET program, visit http://www.csmd.edu/academics/program/AAS.NET.IC/2010-2012.html.