nuclear engineering

nuclear engineering, the field of engineering that deals with the science and application of nuclear and radiation processes. These processes include the release, control, and utilization of nuclear energy and the production and use of radiation and radioactive materials for applications in research, industry, medicine, and national security. Nuclear engineering is based on fundamental principles of physics and mathematics that describe nuclear interactions and the transport of neutrons and gamma rays. These phenomena in turn are dependent on heat transfer, fluid flow, chemical reactions, and behaviour of materials when subjected to radiation. Nuclear engineering is therefore inherently a multifaceted discipline, relying on several branches of physics, and, like the aerospace industry, it relies to a large extent on modeling and simulation for the design and analysis of complex systems that are too large and expensive to be tested.

History

Nuclear engineering was born in the 20th century with the announcement in 1939 of the discovery of nuclear fission by the German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann. It was almost immediately realized that a weapon of enormous explosive energy might be possible by employing fission, and during World War II the race to be the first to build this weapon led to the creation of the Manhattan Project in the United States. The seminal work of the Manhattan Project, led by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, was the building of the first nuclear reactor in 1942 at the University of Chicago. Named Chicago Pile No. 1 (CP-1), this reactor demonstrated the scientific theory of a controlled nuclear chain reaction, and it was followed by the construction of reactors at Hanford, Washington, that were used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. The Hanford production reactors were complex systems that required the talents and efforts of a large number of traditional engineers from all disciplines, but the engineers were supplemented by physicists and mathematicians who understood the complex nuclear phenomena involved and could work with the engineers to design and analyze early reactor systems. These physicist-mathematician-engineers were the ancestors of today’s nuclear engineers.

The successful development of nuclear submarines by the U.S. Navy after the war was a key driver for the then unnamed discipline of nuclear engineering. The design and analysis of nuclear reactors, whether on land or in a submarine, requires an understanding of the complex nuclear phenomena going on within the reactors as well as a practical knowledge of how to go about designing and putting together the fuel assemblies, cooling systems, pressure vessels, control systems, and countless other systems needed for the reactor plant. A growing understanding of nuclear physics within the reactor and of radiation transport within and outside the reactor led to the birth of a new engineering discipline, nuclear engineering, that supplemented the traditional (and necessary) engineering disciplines needed to design, analyze, build, and operate a nuclear reactor plant.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, as the many potential peaceful uses of nuclear energy became evident, schools of reactor technology were established by Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and by Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. These schools were the forerunners of the first academic departments and degree programs established in the 1950s and ’60s by colleges and universities around the United States, including North Carolina State University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Michigan.

The successful application of nuclear reactors to naval propulsion led directly to the rapid development of commercial nuclear power plants in the 1960s and ’70s, and this development in turn increased the demand for graduates with training in nuclear engineering. Today there are more than 40 departments and programs offering courses in nuclear engineering and related fields in the United States and Canada, and more than 60 such programs have been established elsewhere in the world.

While the primary driver for the growth of nuclear engineering has been nuclear power, the discipline is much broader than that one application. Nuclear engineering also includes fields such as radiation measurement and imaging, nuclear fusion and plasma physics, nuclear materials, and medical and health physics. In order to represent this broader spectrum of activities, some nuclear engineering departments have expanded their titles to include “nuclear science,” “radiological sciences,” or “radiation sciences.”

Nuclear engineering functions

The functions carried out by nuclear engineers span a spectrum of activities, including basic research, applied research, development, fabrication and construction, operation, and product support and marketing. All of these functions apply to nuclear power and, to lesser degrees, to other branches of nuclear engineering, depending on the maturity of the field.

Are you a student?

Get a special academic rate on Britannica Premium.

Subscribe

Nuclear engineers perform these functions for various categories of employers:

1. Architectural engineering firms, for which they handle design, safety analysis, project coordination, construction supervision, quality assurance, quality control, and related matters.
2. Reactor vendors and other manufacturing organizations, for which they pursue research, development, design, manufacture, and installation of various components of nuclear systems.
3. Electric utility companies, for which they handle planning, construction supervision, reactor-safety analysis, in-core nuclear fuel management, power-reactor economic analysis, environmental-impact assessment, personnel training, plant management, operation-shift supervision, radiation protection, spent-fuel storage, and radioactive-waste management.
4. Hospital and medical centres, where they conduct applied research and also develop and carry out diagnostic and therapeutic radiation procedures on patients.
5. Regulatory agencies, for which they undertake licensing, rule making, safety research, risk analysis, on-site inspection, and research administration.
6. Defense programs, for which they are employed in naval propulsion and nuclear weapons programs.
7. Universities, where they teach prospective nuclear engineers and perform basic and applied nuclear engineering research.
8. National laboratories and industrial research laboratories, where they carry out basic and applied research and development on a variety of nuclear-related topics.