Nuclear engineering is the engineering discipline concerned with the design and application of systems that make use of the energy released by nuclear processes.
The most prominent application of nuclear engineering is the generation of electricity. Worldwide, some 440 nuclear reactors in 32 countries generate 10 percent of the world's energy through nuclear fission. In the future, it is expected that nuclear fusion will add another nuclear means of generating energy. Both reactions make use of the nuclear binding energy released when atomic nucleons are either separated (fission) or brought together (fusion). The energy available is given by the binding energy curve, and the amount generated is much greater than that generated through chemical reactions. Fission of 1 gram of uranium yields as much energy as burning 3 tons of coal or 600 gallons of fuel oil, without adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
Nuclear engineers work in such areas as the following:
Nuclear reactor design, which has evolved from the Generation I, proof-of concept, reactors of the 1950s and 1960s, to Generation II, Generation III, and Generation IV concepts
Thermal hydraulics and heat transfer. In a typical nuclear power plant, heat generates steam that drives a steam turbine and a generator that produces electricity
Materials science as it relates to nuclear power applications
Managing the nuclear fuel cycle, in which fissile material is obtained, formed into fuel, removed when depleted, and safely stored or reprocessed
Nuclear propulsion, mainly for military naval vessels, but there have been concepts for aircraft and missiles. Nuclear power has been used in space since the 1960s
Plasma physics, which is integral to the development of fusion power
Weapons development and management
Generation of radionuclides, which have applications in industry, medicine, and many other areas
Nuclear waste management
Health physics
Nuclear medicine and Medical Physics
Health and safety
Instrumentation and control engineering
Process engineering
Project Management
Quality engineering
Reactor operations
Nuclear security (detection of clandestine nuclear materials)
Nuclear engineering even has a role in criminal investigation, and agriculture.
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In nuclear engineering, a neutron moderator is a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, ideally without capturing any, leaving them as thermal neutrons with only minimal (thermal) kinetic energy. These thermal neutrons are immensely more susceptible than fast neutrons to propagate a nuclear chain reaction of uranium-235 or other fissile isotope by colliding with their atomic nucleus. Water (sometimes called "light water" in this context) is the most commonly used moderator (roughly 75% of the world's reactors).
A natural nuclear fission reactor is a uranium deposit where self-sustaining nuclear chain reactions occur. The conditions under which a natural nuclear reactor could exist had been predicted in 1956 by Paul Kuroda. The remnants of an extinct or fossil nuclear fission reactor, where self-sustaining nuclear reactions have occurred in the past, can be verified by analysis of isotope ratios of uranium and of the fission products (and the stable daughter nuclides of those fission products).
In nuclear engineering, the void coefficient (more properly called void coefficient of reactivity) is a number that can be used to estimate how much the reactivity of a nuclear reactor changes as voids (typically steam bubbles) form in the reactor moderator or coolant. Net reactivity in a reactor is the sum total of multiple contributions, of which the void coefficient is but one. Reactors in which either the moderator or the coolant is a liquid typically will have a void coefficient value that is either negative (if the reactor is under-moderated) or positive (if the reactor is over-moderated).
The semester project is designed to train the students in the solution of specific engineering problems. This makes use of the technical and social skills acquired during the master's programme.
This course is intended to understand the engineering design of nuclear power plants using the basic principles of reactor physics, fluid flow and heat transfer. This course includes the following: Re
This course examines the supply of energy from various angles: available resources, how they can be combined or substituted, their private and social costs, whether they can meet the demand, and how t
Realizing a hydrogen economy strongly requires alkaline water electrolysis to achieve large-scale generation of H2, but lacks stable and efficient catalysts. The insufficient active sites in Ni(OH)2 impair the catalytic performance of alkaline HER. Herein, ...
Nuclear power is a powerful technology that plays an important role in the fight against climate change, and research is continuously engaged in studies that could further improve its safety. After the Fukushima accident, Accident Tolerant Fuels research h ...
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GRE@T-PIONEeR is a Horizon 2020 project coordinated by Chalmers University of Technology, running over the period 2020-2024. 18 university teachers from 8 different universities located in 6 different countries gathered forces to develop and offer advanced ...