Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), ranking member of the House Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, on April 8 unveiled a $19.2 million Department of Energy award to support a new nuclear safety training and workforce development program.
Kaptur spoke of the initiative, led by the University of Toledo, during a visit to the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio. According to Kaptur, the initiative builds on funding she authored in the fiscal 2024 Energy and Water appropriations bill, which set aside $100 million for nuclear reactor safety training programs. A second funding round for the remaining $50 million, given out by the Office of Nuclear Energy, is expected at a later date.
“This $19.2 Million award to the University of Toledo is the largest single federal award from the federal government in UToledo history and will reshape how the Federal government views university based nuclear research,” Kaptur said in her press release, which added the funding is distributing $50 million across 10 university-led projects nationwide.
The Ohio-led effort is part of the Great Lakes Partnership to Enhance the Nuclear Workforce, a consortium that includes academic institutions, national laboratories, labor unions and industry partners such as Vistra Corp.