Nuclear engineering is a research area focused on the analysis, design, optimization, and safety assessment of systems that exploit nuclear processes, primarily fission and, increasingly, fusion. It encompasses reactor physics, thermal-hydraulics, fuel cycle science, radiation transport, materials behavior under irradiation, and nuclear instrumentation and control. Research addresses core design, neutron economy, transmutation, waste minimization, and proliferation resistance, as well as severe-accident phenomenology and probabilistic risk assessment. Contemporary nuclear engineering also investigates advanced reactor concepts (e.g., fast reactors, high-temperature reactors, small modular reactors), fuel and cladding innovations, fusion plasma-facing components, and nuclear data evaluation to support both power generation and non-power applications such as medical isotope production and radiation technologies.
The alchemist's dream is to make gold from common metals, but can this be done? The physics needed to explain how to change one element into another is well understood and has been used for decades in accelerators and colliders, ...
Plasma Physics
Jul 28, 2025
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Beyond plans to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since the Apollo Era, NASA and other space agencies have their sights trained on Mars, Venus, and other deep-space destinations. To accomplish this, robust ...
Space Exploration
Jul 24, 2025
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Researchers in the Oregon State University College of Engineering have developed new technology for uranium enrichment measurement and trace element detection, vital for nuclear nonproliferation and supporting the development ...
General Physics
Jul 14, 2025
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Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a new and faster method for detecting and measuring the radioactivity of minuscule amounts of radioactive material. The innovative ...
General Physics
Jul 8, 2025
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Operators have pumped water to cool the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) since the accident in 2011 and treated this cooling water with the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), which ...
Environment
Jul 2, 2025
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Late last week, Israel targeted three of Iran's key nuclear facilities—Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow, killing several Iranian nuclear scientists. The facilities are heavily fortified and largely underground, and there are conflicting ...
General Physics
Jun 16, 2025
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As the focus on energy resiliency and competitiveness increases, the development of advanced materials for next-generation, commercial fusion reactors is gaining attention. A recent paper published in the journal Current ...
Plasma Physics
Jun 2, 2025
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69
How can fission-powered propulsion help advance deep space exploration, specifically to the outer planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science ...
Space Exploration
Jun 2, 2025
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79
Nuclear fusion reactors are highly powerful technologies that can generate energy by fusing (i.e., joining) two light atomic nuclei to form a heavier nucleus. These fusion reactions release large amounts of energy, which ...
Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) has stood as a promising potential alternative propulsion technology for decades. Chemical rockets have begun to reach their theoretical maximum efficiency, and their developers have switched ...
Space Exploration
May 28, 2025
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