Nuclear Basics
Fields in NE

Interested in medicine and health care?

Everybody knows about X-ray and other imaging machines, and nuclear engineers work with those. But we also develop the tags that cancer researchers use to target tumors for therapy. More than 30,000 people benefit directly from nuclear medical procedures every day in the United States alone.

How about the environment?

Everybody’s concerned about the quality of our air and water — nuclear engineers are, too. And we’re doing something about it. We design tracers that help find leaks in overland pipelines. Other tracers allow us to follow the course of underground water and work to improve its quality.

Most people know that nuclear engineers are crucial in building and running nuclear power plants. But did you know that such plants may be the only way to generate the quantities of electricity needed in the next millennium that is completely odorless and smokeless?

What about manufacturing?

You're reading these words on a a computer that runs because of radiation-treated insulation on its wiring.And if you printed this page, then you’re reading these words on paper produced with the help of radiation thickness gauges — developed by nuclear engineers. Remember that soft drink you had a while ago? The aluminum in the can was rolled out with the help of similar gauges— nuclear engineers again.

Food — everybody has to eat, right?

When you go to the store to buy something for dinner, the chances are pretty good a nuclear engineer had something to do with whatever it is. The plant breeders who developed those fresh, tasty vegetables probably used radiation treatments developed by nuclear engineers to speed new varieties to market. Radiation technology is used to purify all the food astronauts eat during space missions — and the same process can be used to rid all hamburgers of E. coli bacteria.

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