OSH Graduate Students Field Trip to a Nuclear Reactor

The Center for Health, Work & Environment houses the Mountain & Plains Education and Research Center, one of 18 centers of its kind supported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

What sets us apart

The pride of the Mountain & Plains Education and Research Center is the real world experiences we offer students through hands-on training and site visits.

Explore our programs here.

We help meet the occupational health needs of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, and Wyoming by educating the future occupational health and safety workforce, developing partnerships, and funding pilot research. 

We create opportunities for graduate and post-graduate trainees to learn from accomplished faculty and other trainees in five different occupational health and safety disciplines and Total Worker Health®. The pride of the MAP ERC is the hands-on, real world experiences we offer students through training and site-visits. Our passionate and veteran program directors use their professional networks to ensure that students have a diverse and rich educational experience.

Last week, trainees from our Health Physics program, led by the infamous Tom Johnson, PhD, had a private tour of the USGS TRIGA® Reactor in Lakewood, CO. The USGS TRIGA reactor has been in operation since the late 1960s in support of nuclear–based research for the USGS and a number of universities across the nation. Trainees discussed and explored radiation methods and reactor design, as well as safety and health procedures in place at the reactor site.

Thank you to Dr. Johnson and the USGS staff for this unique and valuable opportunity.