About a year ago, Pellissippi State Community College launched a Chemical Radiation Technology pathway in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The new pathway set out to build up a workforce of skilled technicians for the radiochemistry industry, coupling in-depth coursework with hands-on application in the lab.
Now, three graduates of the pathway were slated to walk the commencement stage in December.
“There’s been a national call to get more students within the nuclear field,” said Leslie Adamczyk, Pellissippi State professor and coordinator of the Chemical Radiation Technology pathway. “And it’s exciting for our students, that they can get a two-year degree and possibly go on to work at a national lab. And if they want to pursue their education further, there is a pathway for that as well.”
Among this semester’s graduates are Jon Rowland and Jared Dowell, who were featured in the September 2024 edition of “Nuclear News” – a publication dedicated to coverage of the nuclear industry.
Dowell appears on the cover, and both students are quoted in a story spotlighting the Chemical Radiation Technology pathway and Pellissippi State’s close collaboration with ORNL.
“The pathway itself has been a really great opportunity – one that has allowed me and other students in it to get education on a topic that you don’t really get anywhere else,’ Dowell said. “So, it’s been invaluable for the field of work that we want to go into.”
Rowland, who had already earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics before coming to Pellissippi State for the Chemical Radiation Technology pathway, said he chose the pathway because of how many opportunities it presented.
One such opportunity was a 10-week, paid internship at ORNL, which Rowland said only confirmed for him that he had chosen the right path.
“It gives you an education that you normally wouldn’t have,” Rowland said. “Me and Jared got to practice things that someone outside the pathway would not get a chance to do. So, we get a little bit of an edge over someone that doesn’t go through the program.”
For Dowell, the most exciting part of the internship was working with hot cell manipulators – arms used to conduct remote chemistry experiments in containment cells for extremely radioactive substances.
Seeing what he had learned in the classroom in the lab was amazing, Dowell said, and being able to do it as a living would be even more so.
“It was very different than anything else I have ever done,” he said. “A lot of our time was spent networking and talking to some really interesting and important people over there, and just learning about what they do. And some time was spent doing projects that were required for the internship. We got to see some really cool things, go to some really interesting places – it was definitely an experience.”
Both men expressed their gratitude to ORNL for its part in the creation of the pathway, as well as the number of people from the national laboratory who have taught classes or participated as guest speakers – and how clearly devoted they are to students’ success.
Jimmy Selph, a waste-services representative in the Transportation and Waste Management Division at ORNL, and Rich Franco, a team leader in the Environmental Protection Services Division at ORNL, developed the pathway’s Hazardous Waste Control course and co-taught it last spring.
Jeremy Busby, associate laboratory director for Isotope Science and Engineering at ORNL, said the lab noticed a key gap in workforce development that ultimately led to its partnership with Pellissippi State.
“Pellissippi State was a good partner that was very willing to help us fill that gap,” Busby said.
“And that’s sort of where this program came from – looking for a long-term pipeline, … not only for ORNL but other places around the country that are also in desperate need of this skill set.”
Much of the existing workforce is retiring, he said, and the U.S. is actively securing its own isotope supply chain.
“This is a support-services internship where we’re literally trying to give them opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of our process, how they fit with our team and our culture, to see if they could be good employment opportunities,” said Selph, who emphasized that ORNL internships are extremely competitive and not a guarantee for Pellissippi State students in the pathway.
There’s still a lot of room for the program to evolve, Selph said, pointing specifically to the involvement of ORNL personnel on a mentorship level.
Jared, Jon and their PSCC classmate Taylor Lundquist were the first pathway interns at ORNL, Selph said, which helped the lab pave the way for what the program should look like.
A lot of what they have discussed in class is isotope production and how it can contribute to the fight against cancer, the pair said. The knowledge that he could help a family struggling with a cancer diagnosis took on new meaning for Rowland when his own grandmother was faced with one earlier this year.
“Depending on where we end up, we could be creating something that will save someone’s life,” Rowland said. “And that is very rewarding to me.”
Pellissippi State Community College is a public community college based in Knox and Blount counties in Tennessee and operated by the Tennessee Board of Regents. The college operates four campuses: Hardin Valley, Blount County, Strawberry Plains and Magnolia Avenue.
