American Nuclear Society Student Section University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
#MakeNuclearMatter
About ANS UPRM
The American Nuclear Society Student Section at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (ANS UPRM) is a student section of the the American Nuclear Society, an international non-profit organization that promotes nuclear science, engineering, and technology. It was established on November 19th, 2019 at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, under the mechanical engineering department. ANS UPRM is one of 54 ANS student sections in the United States and other countries, which operate independently. The student section at the UPRM seeks to “relight the passion for nuclear sciences our community once had”.
The ANS UPRM Student Section was officially approved by the ANS Board of Directors during the 2019 Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C. with the purpose of raising awareness about nuclear science and technology. It was founded by four undergraduate students from the university’s chemical engineering department. The student section started out with 25 members, quickly growing to over 200 local members over the course of the next few years.
In the authorization petition submitted by the organizing students to the Board in 2019, the primary stated objective was to “educate the Puerto Rican communities on subjects regarding nuclear sciences to help reduce and prevent the propagation of stigmas and misinformation… [and to] create meaningful connections between students and professionals interested in researching areas related to nuclear subjects.” Today, the section continues to pursue its mission with the support of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, the Nuclear Alternative Project, the American Nuclear Society, and multiple small groups of students and professionals in the nuclear field. In recent years, the section and it’s members have received several recognitions, grants, and awards from the American Nuclear Society at a national level.
History of Nuclear Sciences in Puerto Rico
The nuclear engineering field was present in the island of Puerto Rico during the 1950s through the 1970s. Projects such as the Puerto Rico Nuclear Center (later named Center for Energy and Environment Research) and the Boiling Nuclear Superheater (BONUS) Reactor Facility employed thousands of scientists and engineers, and carried out important research projects related to nuclear energy, applications of nuclear sciences in medicine, and environmental studies. Despite the University of Puerto Rico’s rich history in nuclear engineering research, including the previous offering of a Nuclear Engineering masters degree, the university does not currently offer nuclear engineering courses in any of its 11 campuses.
Puerto Rico’s BONUS Facility, a nuclear power plant prototype located in Domes Beach, Rincón, was created to research boiling-superheating in the late 1960s, and was quickly decommissioned in 1969–70 due to technical difficulties. The local community’s perceived failure of BONUS, followed by the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear accidents, led to a lack of support for nuclear power in Puerto Rico and over time, most projects were shut down for various reasons. Today, nuclear energy remains a controversial topic in the island. Still, relevant research is currently being conducted at the UPRM’s Bubble Dynamics Laboratory facilities. Topics related to the detection, characterization, generation, and manipulation of microbubbles and nanobubbles for visualization of multiphase flows to improve the designs, efficiencies, and safety of current water-based reactors, as well as Generation IV molten salt technologies have gained traction. Furthermore, the student and faculty communities have demonstrated interest in the implementation of a nuclear engineering minor at the university.
Demographics
As of July 2022, the ANS UPRM had a total of 208 local members (referred to as friends of ANS), as well as 15 national members. The distribution of enrollment of the students is very diverse, and interest in nuclear sciences has been observed from multiple branches of STEAM. Of the members, 76% are engineering students and 23% are students in other STEM disciplines, including agronomy, geology, chemistry, and physics. About 4% of our members and friends are pursuing business administration, art, language, or other studies. Of the members pursuing engineering majors, 37% are enrolled in the chemical engineering curriculum, 27% in mechanical engineering, and the rest are in other engineering curricula. Historically, approximately 44% of the total membership and over 50% the Board of Directors identify as female, which is partially due to the high percentage of female engineering students enrolled at the UPRM (the UPRM’s Chemical Engineering department has 55% female identifying students.
The section has noted that the average engineering curriculum at the UPRM takes 6.7 years to complete, and contain between 160 to 190 credits, therefore out of the 58% of members who identify as juniors and seniors (due to being in their 4th-7th year) do not necessarily graduate within the next 12 months. For more information on section demographics, please see our annual reports.
