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The second annual apprenticeship graduation at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) on Nov. 19 marked a milestone not only for the graduates who completed the four-year program but also for the Laboratory, which recently expanded the program to other national laboratories with $3 million in funding from the DOE’s Office of Science.
Russell Gutter III and Sean Hough became the second cohort of apprentices to graduate from PPPL’s apprenticeship program, with their families, mentors, Lab leadership and state and U.S. officials on hand for the occasion.
Gutter has been hired as a power systems technician and Hough as an instrumentation and control technician. The program provides training in highly skilled technical jobs, many of which support PPPL’s main fusion experiment, the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U), which is focused on developing fusion energy as a clean, safe and virtually limitless energy source.
“It was a wonderful opportunity,” Hough said. “If you told me four years ago I would be designing circuit boards or learning how to run code to test diagnostics, I would ask someone to pinch me. To be tasked with all these responsibilities is not only stimulating but also shows confidence in the group and what we can do.”
Laboratory Director Steve Cowley, who conceived of the program when he came to PPPL as director in 2018, said he is delighted that the program is expanding. “Our apprenticeship program is an opportunity for people who like to do things with their hands — to think with their brains but act with their hands. It’s tremendously important,” Cowley said. “You will be part of developing fusion energy for the world, and that will be a learning process for your whole lives.”
The apprenticeship program provides training in highly skilled technical jobs, many of which support PPPL’s main fusion experiment, the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U), which is focused on developing fusion energy as a clean, safe and virtually limitless energy source.
PPPL’s program has expanded to include apprentices in a wide variety of technical fields, including information technology, cybersecurity, cryogenic/superconducting magnets and safety inspectors. The apprentices work full time under the guidance of a highly skilled senior mentor while completing 576 hours of technical instruction at a technical school, community college or university.
PPPL is completing a two-year term as an apprenticeship ambassador for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Michael Blatt, state director of the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration’s Office of Apprenticeship, attended the graduation ceremony.
PPPL’s program is the first registered apprenticeship program in the U.S. focused on fusion energy and engineering. The Lab received a $48,000 grant from the Growing Apprenticeship in Nontraditional Sectors (GAINS) program from the DOL and the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development Office of Apprenticeship in 2024.
Andy Carpe, the technical administrator for the program, has worked at PPPL for 33 years as a technician on most of the Lab’s experiments and said he is happy to help train early career technicians. “To be able to give back, to watch these guys grow and the next generation take over is just really, truly a remarkable thing,” he said.
Gutter now works on the systems that power the NSTX-U. He eventually hopes to go back to school for engineering.
Gutter was interested in taking things apart and putting them together from an early age. When he graduated from high school, he worked as a technician at an auto shop while taking classes at Mercer County Technical School. That’s where he met Kevin Purdy, a mechanical technician who was then one of PPPL’s first apprentices, who told him about the program.
Gutter applied and began working at PPPL and taking classes in 2020. Gutter said he enjoyed working on the large machines in the technical shop and learning to weld. He ended up working on the systems that power the NSTX-U.
Gutter eventually hopes to go back to school for engineering. He said he continues to learn on the job. “I get to learn all about the systems that power the experiment and get hands-on experience with things like soldering, replacing components, diagnosing problems, and to top it off, all the people I work with are great.”
“I’m very happy that Russ is a part of the team,” said Elliott Baer, the field coil power conversion (FCPC) operations engineer in charge of upgrading and testing the electrical systems. “He has been an instrumental technician in helping FCPC become operational again.”
Hough was hired full time in July as an instrumentation and control technician and has enjoyed mentoring a first-year electrical apprentice. “It’s a great experience,” he said.
Hough was a legal assistant in Philadelphia who came to the apprenticeship program seeking a career where he could learn technical skills. Now, he works on computer control systems and diagnostics for the NSTX-U.
“To be brought in at the ground level and trained up is a blessing, and the fact that I didn’t incur any more student debt is definitely appreciated,” Hough said. “I get to interface with the engineers on a daily basis. I’m learning a ton of stuff from them.”
Hough was hired full time in July and has enjoyed mentoring James Henderson Jr., a first-year electrical apprentice. “It’s a great experience,” Hough said. “I’m more of a co-learner. We can learn some of this stuff together.”
Hough’s wife, Jessica, and children Joyce, 15, and Andrés, 8, came to his graduation. “It’s great to see him shine. He’s worked so hard for so many hours, and we’re very proud of him,” Jessica Hough said.
Hough’s mentor, Westley Reese, who celebrated his 44th year at PPPL on the day of the apprenticeship graduation, was on hand to watch the ceremony. Reese said he’s happy that technicians like Hough are being trained to take the reins from senior technicians like him. “I know Sean is going to take us to the next level,” he said. “We’re in very good hands going forward.”
