The NRC’s Technical Training Center, located in Chattanooga, Tenn., recently hosted 12 young scientists and engineers who were children and friends of NRC employees. The training center includes several state-of-the-art classrooms and – most importantly – a control room simulator used to train NRC technical staff.
The youngsters got an up-close-and-personal tour of the simulator, and were amazed to see the complexity of the buttons, switches, and alarms covering the control panels.
Training center employees enjoyed introducing the kids to the NRC, and the fields of science and engineering. The theme was “Inspector Training” and the day started with a quiz show on the NRC and its inspection program, and then the children had fun with hands-on science experiments.
In addition to touring the simulator, the youngsters got a demonstration of the center’s x-ray unit and got dressed in the protective clothing that NRC inspectors may wear when visiting nuclear power plants.
The day was exciting for everyone involved, and served as an important outreach activity to the young community about the NRC and its responsibilities as a regulator. The training center looks forward to future opportunities like this to encourage our youth to apply themselves in the fields of engineering and science.
N. Jeff Griffis, CHP Senior Health Physicist NRC Technical Training Center
U.S. NRC Blog 
Getting the children interested in Nuclear science holds the future of this Economy
I love your idea for using a former power station!
I have not heard of a museum for nuclear power, but even with a career in nuclear work, I was facinated, entertained and above all educated by my tour of the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas.
http://www.atomictestingmuseum.org/index.asp
The Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos focuses on research and defense, of course.
http://www.lanl.gov/museum/exhibits/
The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History is now in Albequerque, NM, moved from the Kirtland Air Force Base.
http://www.nuclearmuseum.org/general-information/
Of course the American Museum of Science and Energy at Oak Ridge TN covers energy and nuclear topics.
http://www.amse.org/content.aspx?article=1138&parent=1841
That could be a good idea Bob, especially with what’s happened around the world lately. I know in the UK there has been strong opposition to this type of energy and anything that increases public awareness and learning has got to be a good thing.
That is why I propose a national nuclear power museum just like they use old ships as museums. It might be possible to decontaminate a nuclear power station that has already had its life span (Shoreham, Zion maybe?) and have it open so that people like me can see what is inside a nuclear power station It would be good public relations. Is there any facility like that today, or anything at the Smithsonian? This would be after all the radiation has been taken away, all the fuel taken away, etc.
I wish I could have some experience like this when I was kid…
wow really exciting. I wish I experience this when I was young
nice thing…Student’s felt like scientist them self….And it is so exciting….Anyway tours is good way to understand things in a better manner…..
No, the NRC’s Technical Training Center is not open to visitors.
Good job. It’s great that you decided to settle interest in young kids. It has probably been a great experience for them and I think some are already considering working there when they grow up!
that is so cool. I always wanted to be a physicist. Is it open to visitors.