NUEN - Nuclear Engineering

NUEN 601 Nuclear Reactor Theory

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. 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: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 604 Radiation Interactions and Shielding

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. 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: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 605 Radiation Detection and Nuclear Materials Measurement

Credits 3. 2 Lecture Hours. 3 Lab Hours. Laboratory-based course studying the fundamentals of nuclear materials measurements; 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

Credits 4. 3 Lecture Hours. 3 Lab Hours. 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 608 Fast Spectrum Systems and Applications

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Design and analysis of nuclear systems and nuclear fuel cycles; data, methods and tools for advanced nuclear system modeling; systems analysis; sustainable development of nuclear energy, fast spectrum systems; partitioning & transmutation; hybrid systems; Advanced Fuel cycle program; Generation IV fast reactors; design aspects of Advanced Fast Reactors: neutronics; heat removal; safety; materials; systems. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 609 Nuclear Reactor Safety

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. 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. Prerequisite: NUEN 601 and NUEN 623 or approval of instructor.

NUEN 610 Design of Nuclear Reactors

Credits 4. 4 Lecture Hours. Application of fundamentals of nuclear physics and reactor theory with engineering fundamentals to design of nuclear reactors. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 614 Probabilistic Risk Assessment Techniques in Nuclear Systems

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. 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 NUEN 613.

NUEN 616 Small Modular Reactors and Microreactors

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Advanced topics in small modular reactors and microreactors; new roles in the field of nuclear energy; consideration of new systems and the possibilities for non-carbon emitting sources of electricity; examination of issues for emerging countries with small electrical grids; overview of modularity for construction, economics and staging of plants; analysis of designs, technologies, approaches, utilization, financial considerations and regulatory implications. Prerequisites: Graduate classification; approval of instructor.

NUEN 621 Nuclear Criticality Safety Fundamentals

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Study of the criticality safety discipline; focus on neutronics fundamentals and best analytical practices. Prerequisites: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 623 Nuclear Engineering Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. 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, MATH 346 or MATH 461 and MATH 601 or registration therein or approval of instructor.

NUEN 625 Neutron Transport Theory

Credits 4. 4 Lecture Hours. 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: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 627 Radiation-Hydrodynamics

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. 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: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 628 Computational Fluid Dynamics in Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as it relates to thermal hydraulics in nuclear power generation; computational model of important flow scenarios using appropriate mesh generation techniques; assessment of result validity through standard verification and validation practices. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 630 Monte Carlo Methods for Particle Transport

Credits 3. 2 Lecture Hours. 2 Lab Hours. 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 632 Nuclear Criticality Safety Evaluation

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Advanced topics in Nuclear Criticality Safety (NCS); assessment of Nuclear Criticality Process Safety; principles of Nuclear Criticality Safety Evaluation (NCSE); analysis of nuclear criticality accidents; application of nuclear material accountancy and control in NCSE; evaluation of criticality alarm and detection systems; examination of contingency in NCS; consideration of USDOE-STD-113599 standard and its derivatives (such as LANL Report LA-UR-20127); application of the Monte Carlo Computer Code (MCNP) simulations for NCS. Prerequisites: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 637 Fundamentals of Fusion Engineering

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Broad introduction to the engineering of fusion energy systems; fundamental knowledge regarding fusion physics and approaches to achieve fusion; engineering challenges such as energy conversion, tritium fuel cycle, fusion neutronics, and wastes. Prerequisites: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 640 Severe Accident Analysis of Nuclear Facilities

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Severe accident phenomena from initial fuel heat up to the source term; complexity of accident progression and safety issues; severe accident codes with respect to the modeling philosophy, techniques, assumptions and limitations; development of skills in analysis methodologies/techniques. Prerequisite: Graduate classification in the college of engineering or approval of instructor.

NUEN 644/MEEN 644 Finite Volume Techniques for Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Introduction to finite volume techniques, iterative techniques and grid convergence index, advection-diffusion, two-node and three-node formulations, staggered and non-staggered grid concept, SIMPLE family of algorithms and periodically fully developed flow and heat transfer. Prerequisite: MEEN 357 and MEEN 461; NUEN 430 or equivalent. Cross Listing: MEEN 644/NUEN 644.

NUEN 647 Uncertainty Quantification and Data Science for Engineering Applications

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Predictions of computer codes when the inputs to those codes are uncertain; development of surrogate models for multi-query problems; demonstration on building confidence in computer models and making a qualified prediction. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 650 Nuclear Nonproliferation and Arms Control

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. 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: Graduate classification or approval of the instructor.

NUEN 651 Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Nuclear Material Safeguards

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. 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. Prerequisite: NUEN 601 or equivalent.

NUEN 652 Nuclear Security System Design

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Study of science and engineering associated with the design, evaluation, and implementation of systems to secure nuclear and radiological materials; examination of methods for planning and evaluating nuclear security activities at the state and facility levels; characterization of the adversary, categorization of targets and the consequences associated with failure to protect those targets, detection and delay technologies, on-site and off-site response as well as different response strategies, evaluation of insider threats, and mathematical methods for evaluating risk due to the threat and the security system design; methods for risk minimization and system optimization; broad picture of nuclear security components and their interconnections into a sustainable nuclear security program, as well as of planning nuclear security activities at both the state and facility levels. Prerequisites: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 657 Emergency Response Dose Assessment

Credits 2. 2 Lecture Hours. The U.S. Nuclear Emergency Response program; assessment of radiation doses to the public and emergency responders following an event; topics include U.S. response teams, radioecology, U.S. guidelines, dose assessment techniques and useful software packages; capstone exercise simulating a radiological release. Prerequisites: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 660/MSEN 619 Materials Modeling of Phase Transformation and Microstructural Evolution

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Modeling and simulation of microstructural evolution during phase transformation in solids; spinodal decomposition, ordering, martensitic transformation, ferroelectric and ferromagnetic domain evolution, dislocation dynamics and crack propagation; primary focus on finite-element and phase-field methods. Prerequisites: Graduate classification and approval of instructor. Cross Listing: MSEN 619/NUEN 660.

NUEN 662 Nuclear Materials Under Extreme Conditions

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Fundamentals of materials degradation under reactor environments; linkage from radiation induced microstructure changes to materials thermal properties, mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, swelling, creep, and overall integrities; materials issues of nuclear fuel, cladding, out-core structural components and waste storage managements. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 663 Fundamentals of Ion Solid Interactions

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Fundamentals of neutron and ion interactions with solid state materials, and subsequent damage cascade formation, defect clustering, and structural changes; electronic stopping and nuclear stopping mechanisms based on classic and quantum mechanics treatments; development of basic modeling capabilities to carry out simulations for relevant research topics. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 664 Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Nuclear Materials

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Basic and applications of molecular dynamics simulations for nuclear engineering applications; includes radiation damage, defect clustering, mechanical properties, and thermal properties of nuclear fuel and metals; hands-on practice by using open-source LAMMPS code; application of learning to practical problems at the frontier of nuclear materials researches. Prerequisites: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 667 Deep Learning for Engineering Applications

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Introduction to the fundamentals of deep learning along with its advanced applications in addressing engineering problems, emphasizing modeling and simulation, as well as complex system analysis; combination of theoretical knowledge with practical applications; hands-on coding practice to foster a robust understanding of deep learning techniques and learn how to leverage them to solve complex engineering challenges. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 673 Radiation Biology

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Response of biological systems to ionizing radiation at the molecular, cellular, tissue and organismal levels; effects of different doses and dose rates with emphasis on the underlying mechanisms relevant to accidental, environmental and medical exposures. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of the instructor.

NUEN 674 Radiation Carcinogenesis

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. 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 of approval of instructor.

NUEN 681 Seminar

Credit 1. 1 Lecture Hour. Topics in nuclear engineering and health/medical physics not covered by formal coursework; whenever possible, guest lectures will discuss topics which they have personally investigated. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

NUEN 684 Professional Internship

Credits 0 to 9. 0 to 9 Other Hours. Training under the supervision of practitioners in settings appropriate to the student’s professional objectives; practical experience in a visualization related company; equivalent of 480-600 hours over at least 12 weeks; departmental pre-approval through the departmental internship coordinator required; post evaluation conducted following the internship. Prerequisites: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 685 Directed Studies

Credits 1 to 12. 1 to 12 Other Hours. 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...

Credits 1 to 4. 1 to 4 Lecture Hours. 0 to 4 Lab Hours. Selected topics in an identified area of nuclear engineering. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

NUEN 691 Research

Credits 1 to 23. 1 to 23 Other Hours. Research toward thesis or dissertation.