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Department of Nuclear Engineering
M. L. Adams*, A. A. Amendola, D. Y. Anistratov, F. R. Best, D. R. Boyle, L. A. Braby, W. E. Burchill (Head), W. S. Charlton, R. G. Cochran, J. J. Congleton, J. R. Ford, Jr., B. L. Freeman, I. S. Hamilton, R. R. Hart, Y. A. Hassan, W. D. James, Jr., C. J. Kerk, W. H. Marlow, M. E.McLain, J. S. Moore, P. Nelson, Jr., T. A. Parish, K. L. Peddicord, W. W. Pitt, Jr., J. W.Poston,Sr., W. D. Reece, J. C. Rock, P. V. Tsvetkov, J.P.Wagner
* Graduate Advisor
The nuclear engineer applies radiation and energy from nuclear sources to fields such as electricity generation, space craft propulsion, sterilization, food processing, industrial measurements and medical diagnostic and therapeutic treatments. Nuclear engineering is based on the principles of nuclear physics that govern radioactivity, fission and fusion; the production of heat and radiation in those processes; and the interaction of radiation with matter. The function of the nuclear engineer is to apply these principles to a wide range of challenging technological problems.
The Department of Nuclear Engineering offers the Master of Engineering, Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. The department also offers courses and faculty supervision for students pursuing the Doctor of Engineering degree. Admission to nuclear engineering requires a bachelor's degree in engineering, chemistry, mathematics or physics. Some nuclear physics background is highly desirable. Mathematics through differential equations is required.
Degree programs that include a minor field of study are encouraged. This minor field would normally include graduate study in the area of the student's baccalaureate degree. If the baccalaureate degree is nuclear engineering, the student with the advice of his or her committee will select a suitable minor area of study. The department does not have a foreign language requirement for the PhD degree; however, successful completion of a departmental qualifying exam is required.
Research opportunities are varied, with emphasis on nuclear fuels, solid/ion interactions, particle transport, reactor safety, design of advanced nuclear reactors, thermal hydraulics, computational fluid mechanics, plasma engineering, reactor kinetics and control, plutonium disposition, space nuclear power systems, radiation interactions with living tissue, dosimetry, medical isotopes, and neural networks and expert systems.
The department offers a wide variety of facilities for instructional and research purposes. These include a well-equipped radiation measurements laboratory, a sub-critical reactor laboratory, access to a supercomputer facility and a University-wide UNIX network, a departmental computer facility including interconnected UNIX and Windows workstations with an extensive software library, a radiochemistry laboratory, thermal hydraulics laboratories, an AGN-201M low power nuclear reactor, five low-energy ion accelerators, a large TRIGA research reactor located at the Texas A&M University Nuclear Science Center, and a new plasma science/pulsed power laboratory. An 88-inch cyclotron is also available for research in nuclear physics and engineering at the Cyclotron Institute.
Professional Educational Program in Health Physics
Students interested in doctoral level studies in health physics can pursue these through the PhD program in nuclear engineering. In addition, a professional education program in health physics, leading to the Master of Science degree in health physics, is available in the department.
This area of specialized study in the Department of Nuclear Engineering is based strongly on the fundamental aspects of radiation effects on matter, internal and external dosimetry and environmental aspects of nuclear power. The curriculum is such that students are educated at a professional level in the field of radiation safety or health physics.
A student is required to spend the initial academic year taking formal course work in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and in other cooperating departments of the University. The summer is spent in special courses providing practical on-the-job training in health physics at the Cyclotron Institute, the Nuclear Science Center Reactor, and/or at the Radiological Safety Office. At least one additional semester is normally required to finish course work and complete a research project for the Master of Science degree in health physics.
Professional Education Program in Industrial Hygiene and Safety Engineering
Students interested in industrial hygiene or safety engineering can pursue the Master of Science degree through the department. These areas of specialized study in the Department of Nuclear Engineering are based strongly on the fundamental aspects of industrial hygiene, measurement techniques, evaluation and control of the work environment, ergonomics, system safety engineering, product safety and fire protection engineering. The curricula are such that students are trained at a professional level in the fields of industrial hygiene and safety engineering.
A student is required to spend the initial academic year taking formal course work in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and in other cooperating departments of the University. The summer is normally spent in an internship in industry which provides practical on-the-job training. At least one additional semester is required to finish course work and complete a research project for the Master of Science degree.
Nuclear Engineering
(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.
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
604. Radiation Interactions 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
611. Radiation Detection and Management. (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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
618. Nuclear Control Systems. (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: NUEN 602 or registration therein.
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 ELEN 605. Cross-listed with MEEN 652.
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.
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.
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 602; MATH 602.
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: NUEN430; NUEN602 or equivalent.
630. Computational Methods for Particle Transport Problems. (4-0). Credit 4.
Key properties of linear Boltzmann equation, including analytic solution of model problems, discretization methods; analysis of how well discretization methods reproduce important characteristics of exact solution; assessment of which properties are most important in various application.
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.
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.
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.
675. Internal Dose Techniques. (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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
689. Special Topics in... Credit 1 to 4.
Selected topics in an identified area of nuclear engineering. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.
691. Research. Credit 1 or more each semester.
Research toward thesis or dissertation.
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