The fate of the Cornell program, which was reduced to offering to share its apparatus with the geology and art history departments, is not unique. A 1997 Department of Energy survey found only 570 students nationwide majoring in nuclear engineering, down nearly a thousand from five years earlier. Most experts in the field, who entered the discipline in the heroic early days of nuclear research, are now approaching retirement, including three-quarters of the workforce in the national laboratory system.

At the University of Michigan, which decided last fall to decommission its nuclear reactor, use of the facility has been declining for years as faculty retire without being replaced. A.E. Waltar, the director of Texas A&M's nuclear engineering program, says, "This was the place to be when I started in this field in the '60s. But with the bad rap that the word 'nuclear' has had, even interested students get discouraged. They tell mom and dad what they're doing and, their parents say, 'You're going into a dead-end field.' "

What accounts for the decline in nuclear research? Part of it is due to the concerted antinuclear campaign by environmentalists, who should actually be attracted to this ecologically friendly energy. But Greenpeace's Web site claims that "every nuclear power plant has the capacity for a meltdown that could poison millions of square miles with radiation and kill hundreds of thousands of people."

Thanks in part to this propaganda blitz, a general impression has formed that nuclear energy has been tried, has failed and is on the way out. There is a whole genre of popular entertainment based on the danger of playing with atoms. We're not talking about "The China Syndrome" here--try "Class of Nuke 'Em High 3: The Good, the Bad and the Subhumanoid," a cheesy 1994 exploitation flick.

Add this to the popular association of nuclear science with nuclear war, and it is not difficult to understand why students have been wary of the subject. This, despite the fact that the nuclear industry offers great job prospects. There are roughly three positions available for each recent graduate, and Mr. Waltar says that his students earn the highest average starting salary of any in the university--about $55,000. If President Bush's energy plans go through, the opportunities will be even better.

Foreign students could fill some of these jobs, but getting work permits isn't easy, and many of those who come to study in the U.S. return to their home countries, which often have thriving nuclear programs of their own.