Graduate Course Descriptions

Nuclear Engineering (NUEN)

NUEN 601. Nuclear Reactor Theory. (3-0). Credit 3.

Neutron-nucleus interactions; neutron energy spectra; transport and diffusion theory; multigroup approximation; criticality calculations; cross-section processing; buildup and depletion calculations; modern reactor analysis methods and codes. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

NUEN 602. Nuclear Reactor Analysis. (4-0). Credit 4.

Neutron transport; resonance absorption; modern reactor analysis methods and codes; perturbation theory; reactor kinetics; reactivity coefficients. Prerequisites: NUEN 601 or equivalent; NUEN 604

NUEN 604. Radiation Interaction and Shielding. (3-0). Credit 3.

Basic principles of radiation interactions and transport, especially as related to the design of radiation shields. Radiation sources, nuclear reactions, radiation transport, photon interactions, dosimetry, buildup factors and fast neutron shielding. Prerequisites: NUEN 202 or equivalent; MATH 308; BS in engineering or physical sciences.

NUEN 605. Radiation Detection and Nuclear Materials Measurement. (2-3). Credit 3.

This is a laboratory-based course studying the fundamentals of nuclear materials measurements. The course covers advanced radiation detection instrumentation with a specific focus on measuring nuclear materials (uranium, plutonium, and other actinides). Nuclear material measurements include detection, identification, and quantification of the materials in a fuel cycle facility and in the field. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

NUEN 606. Reactor Analysis and Experimentation. (3-3). Credit 4.

Perturbation theory; delayed neutrons and reactor kinetics; lattice physics calculations; full core calculations; analysis and measurement of reactivity coefficients; analysis and measurement of flux distribution; analysis and measurement of rod worths; critical and subcritical experiments. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

NUEN 607. Plasma and Thermonuclear Engineering. (3-0). Credit 3.

Fusion reactions, orbit theory in magnetic and electric fields, coulomb interactions, formulation of Boltzmann equation; magnetohydrodynamics, plasma waves and application configurations. Prerequisites: MATH 601 or registration therein; basic circuits; NUEN 417 or approval of instructor; nuclear engineering, electrical engineering or physics majors recommended.

NUEN 609. Nuclear Reactor Safety. (3-0). Credit 3.

Analysis and evaluation applied to reactor design for accident prevention and mitigation; protective systems and their reliability, containment design, emergency cooling requirements, reactivity excursions and the atmospheric dispersion of radioactive material; safety problems associated with light-water power reactors and proposed fast reactor systems. Prerequisites: NUEN 601 and 623 or approval of instructor.

NUEN 610. Design of Nuclear Reactors. (4-0). Credit 4.

Application of fundamentals of nuclear physics and reactor theory with engineering fundamentals to design of nuclear reactors. Prerequisites: NUEN 602 or registration therein; NUEN 410 or approval of instructor.

NUEN 611. Radiation Detection and Measurement. (2-3). Credit 3.

Interaction of radiation with matter behavior of various nuclear radiation detectors studied both theoretically and experimentally in the laboratory; properties of radioisotopes useful to industry considered and evaluated from an engineering point of view. Prerequisite: graduate classification, enrollment in NUEN 613 or instructor approval.

NUEN 612. Radiological Safety and Hazards Evaluation. (3-0). Credit 3.

State and federal regulations concerning radioactive materials; radiation safety as applied to accelerators, nuclear reactors and radioactive byproducts; rigorous methods of analysis applied to computation of biological radiation dose and dose rates from various sources and geometries; radiation effects on physical systems. Prerequisites: NUEN 613; MATH 308.

NUEN 613. Principles of Radiological Safety. (3-0). Credit 3.

Rigorous mathematical and physical approach to various aspects of radiological safety; derivation of equations involving radiation absorption, radiation dosimetry and calculations of radiation dose due to internal emitters; mathematical models developed for determination of maximum permissible body burdens and concentrations in air and water. Prerequisite: NUEN 409.

NUEN 614. Probabilistic Risk Assessment Techniques in Nuclear Systems. (3-0). Credit 3.

Current and proposed techniques for determining the reliability of nuclear plant systems and the risk associated with the operation of these advanced technology systems. Prerequisites: NUEN 612 and 613.

NUEN 615. Theory and Applications of Microdosimetry. (3-0). Credit 3.

Theory, measurement, and calculation of microdosimeric spectra; practical applications of microdosimetry in the determination of absorbed dose distribution within tissue, the statistical fluctuations of absorbed dose at the cellular and subcellular level, and the impact of microdosimetry on radiation protection guidelines. Prerequisite: NUEN 613.

NUEN 618. Nuclear Control Systems (Reactor Kinetics and Dynamics). (3-0). Credit 3.

Reactor kinetics and fundamentals of servo-control developed and applied to nuclear reactors. Safety aspects of reactor control and operational problems. Prerequisite: MATH 609 and NUEN 606 or registration therein.

NUEN 619. Multivariable Control System Design. (3-0). Credit 3.

Advanced issues relevant to the design of multivariable control systems using hybrid (time and frequency domain) design methodologies; design using the LQG/LTR method and advanced practical applications using various robust control system design techniques. Prerequisite: MEEN 651 or ECEN 605. Cross-listed with MEEN 652.

NUEN 623. Nuclear Engineering Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow. (3-0). Credit 3.

Thermodynamics and unified treatment of mass, momentum and energy transport with applications to nuclear engineering systems; velocity and temperature distributions in laminar and turbulent flow; flow and thermal stability. Prerequisites: MEEN 334, 346 or 461 and MATH 601 or registration therein or approval of instructor.

NUEN 624. Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Stress Analysis. (3-0). Credit 3.

Unified treatment of advanced heat transport in solids and fluids including boiling phenomena; thermal stress phenomena with applications to nuclear sources; isothermal elasticity; thermoelasticity; viscoelasticity; plasticity. Prerequisites: NUEN 623 or equivalent; MATH 601 or registration therein.

NUEN 625. Neutron Transport Theory. (4-0). Credit 4.

Analytical treatment of neutron transport theory; solution methods of integrodifferential and integral Boltzmann equations, adjoints; energy dependent methods using singular eigenfunctions, variational methods, orthogonal polynomials and thermalization; current analytical techniques in transport theory. Prerequisites: NUEN 606; MATH 602.

NUEN 627. Radiation Hydrodynamics. (3-0). Credit 3.

Coupling of the Euler equations of compressible fluid dynamics with the equations of thermal radiation transport; the equilibrium-diffusion limit; radiative shock waves; and numerical methods for one-dimensional calculations. Prerequisite: MATH 602.

NUEN 629. Numerical Methods in Reactor Analysis. (4-0). Credit 4.

Solution of variable dimension multigroup discrete representation problems including Sn, Pn, An, variational and Monte Carlo techniques; techniques in reactor kinetics, fuel cycle and optimization. Prerequisites: NUEN 430; NUEN 606 or equivalent.

NUEN 630. Monte Carlo Methods for Particle Transport. (4-0). Credit 4.

Principles of Monte Carlo method; random number generation; random variable sampling; particle tracking; statistical error estimation; ACE format cross-sections; introduction to MCNP code; MCNP applied to radiation shielding, criticality safety, reactor physics and detector modeling; MCNP output analysis, statistical tests, and tallying procedures; variance reduction techniques; Monte Carlo algorithm development. Prerequisites: Approval of Instructor, MCNP/MCNPX code single user license from RSICC, ORNL, USA.

NUEN 633. Radiation Measurements and Calibrations. (3-0). Credit 3.

Measurement of radiation dose and protection quantities in realistic radiation fields will be studied; specific characteristics of radiation sources will be discussed in the context of accurate measurement and radiation protection; examples from a wide variety of radiation environments will illustrate radiation measurement requirements for medical, industrial, and research sources. Prerequisite: NUEN 613.

NUEN 644. Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow. (3-0). Credit 3.

Convection-diffusion, up-wind, exponential, exact solution, power law schemes, false diffusion; staggered grid concept; development of simple and simpler algorithms; periodically developed flows. Prerequisites: NUEN 430 or equivalent; MEEN 357 and 461. Cross-listed with MEEN 644.

NUEN 650. Nuclear Nonproliferation and Arms Control. (3-0). Credit 3.

Studies the political and technological issues associated with nuclear proliferation and arms control; history of arms control treaties and verification, proliferation resistance in the nuclear fuel cycle, international and domestic safeguards, material accountancy, containment and surveillance, and physical protection. Prerequisite: NUEN 601.

NUEN 651. Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Nuclear Material Safeguards. (3-0). Credit 3.

Study of civilian and military nuclear fuel cycles and application of nuclear material safeguards to secure these cycles. Topics include the physics of the fundamental fuel cycle components; the application of nuclear material measurements systems; and the technical and legal basis for material protection, control and accounting systems. Prerequisites: NUEN 601 or equivalent.

NUEN 656. Critical Analysis of Nuclear Security Data. (3-3). Credit 4.

A project-based course studying the analysis of nuclear security events, threats, and data. Students will each be assigned a project which requires an analysis of data for a hypothetical case of interest to U.S. national security. The course focuses on detailed technical analysis using diverse datasets and country/organization profiles. Prerequisites: NUEN 650, NUEN 601 or equivalent.

NUEN 673. Radiation Biology. (3-0). Credit 3.

The response of biological systems to ionizing radiation at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels; effects of different dose levels with emphasis on the underlying mechanisms relevant to long term health effects at low doses. Prerequisite: NUEN 409 or graduate classification. Cross-listed with BMEN 673.

NUEN 674. Radiation Carcinogenesis. (3-0). Credit 3.

Examines the experimental models and mathematical simulations for the investigation of radiation-induced cancer, the current scientific literature concerning the intersection of risk analysis and the interpretation of disparate data from varied biological systems. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

NUEN 675. Internal Dose Assessment. (3-0). Credit 3.

Current and proposed techniques for assessing the absorbed dose due to internally deposited radionuclides; techniques recommended for international and national bodies, as well as those used in nuclear medicine. Prerequisites: NUEN 612 and 613.

NUEN 676. Health Physics Instrumentation. (1-6). Credit 3.

Advanced course in health physics instrumentation intended for students pursuing graduate study in health physics; provides an in-depth knowledge of the components of radiation monitoring and measurement systems. Prerequisite: NUEN 402.

NUEN 677. Aerosol Science. (3-0). Credit 3.

Multidisciplinary survey of methods for describing aerosol particles and systems: gas kinetics and transport theory, formation and growth thermodynamics, electrical properties, coagulation, light scattering; selected topics from current literature. Prerequisite: Graduate classification in engineering or approval of instructor. Cross-listed with MEEN 677.

NUEN 678. Waste Management in the Nuclear Industry. (3-0). Credit 3.

Management of radioactive, hazardous and mixed waste generated by all segments of the nuclear fuel cycle and users of radioisotopes; includes treatment, storage and disposal technologies and the political and socioeconomic issues; evaluation of current practices and regulations using a holistic approach. Prerequisites: Graduate classification and approval of instructor.

NUEN 681. Seminar. (1-0). Credit 1.

Special topics in nuclear engineering not covered by formal course work. Whenever possible, guest lecturers will discuss topics which they have personally investigated. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

NUEN 684. Professional Internship. Credit 1 to 6.

Training under the supervision of practicing engineers in settings appropriate to the student’s professional objectives. Prerequisites: Approval of chair of student’s advisory committee and department head.

NUEN 685. Directed Studies. Credit 1 to 12 each semester.

Offered to enable students to undertake and complete limited investigations not within their thesis research and not covered by any other courses in curriculum. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

NUEN 689. Special Topics in... .

Selected topics in an identified area of nuclear engineering. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.
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NUEN 691. Research. Credit 1 or more each semester.

Research toward thesis or dissertation.