The School of Nuclear Engineering conducts research supported by world-class faculty and unique facilities addressing challenges and opportunities in nuclear science, engineering and technology.
Hydrogen generation and storage, and novel fuel cell design and analysis research is carried out in the hydrogen and fuel cell area. As part of the Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative (NHI) thermochemical production of hydrogen using high temperature nuclear heat is considered.
Research into the full physics, three-dimensional simulation of nuclear reactor systems is conducted in the Nuclear Systems Simulation Laboratory. Detailed models of light water reactors are developed using the reactor systems codes RELAP5, RETRAN, and TRAC with
three-dimensional spatial kinetics based on the codes ARROTA and NESTLE.
The nuclear engineering metastable fluids and advanced research laboratory (MFARL) conducts research pertaining to transformational nuclear radiation sensors and instrumentation (currently geared towards combating nuclear terrorism, nuclear facilities health-safety, nuclear medicine, and dark matter search), as well as in developing energetic materials, addressing vapor explosions in nuclear/non-nuclear industries, and radiation tailored “green”, voc free renewable polymers.
Research issues in reactor physics are changing along with changes in the nuclear industry. As no new power reactors have been built in the U.S. recently, the issues have moved to enhancing the performance of the more than 100 U.S. power-generating reactors, further improving their capacity factors and reliability, and extending their life.
Renewables such as wind, photovoltaic, hydro, biomass and Nuclear reactor are carbon neutral or carbon free energy production methods. As renewable energy is intermittent, energy storage is required for uninterrupted power supply. Topics in renewable studies include thermal, thermo-chemical energy storage from direct solar heating, application of photovoltaic electricity for hydrogen or chemical production and related topics.
Research in thermal hydraulics and reactor safety encompasses studies of two-phase flow, heat transfer, phase change, coolant dynamics, liquid metal flow, magneto-hydrodynamics and various phenomena related to reactor safety. The laboratories that support this research are among the most extensive and best equipped among universities around the world.
Nuclear Materials and Advanced Manufacturing
