Recent experiment of nuclear engineering education in Italy

Education has a crucial role for the future of nuclear energy, even more after the Fukushima accident. It is necessary to guarantee the natural turn-over of human resources employed in the field and to prepare qualified engineers and researchers to study and design the future generation of nuclear systems, with a stress on enhanced safety, more efficient fuel cycle, radioactive waste transmutation, security. The Italian situation is peculiar owing to the nuclear energy phase-out, that was decided, after a referendum in 1987, following the Chernobyl accident, and more recently, after another referendum in June 2011, just after the Fukushima- Daiichi accident. After a short history of the Nuclear Engineering education in Italy since 1955 the paper presents the current Nuclear Engineering courses in Italy, and in particular the Master level Nuclear Engineering Course that has been organised this year in collaboration between the Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino.