Nuclear Power

NPRE is well known for its pioneering research in the area of reactor power engineering. NPRE graduates have gone to leadership positions in industry, national laboratories and academia. Research in the Nuclear Power sub-discipline covers all aspects of power generation using nuclear energy on land, underwater (submarine) and in space. It is an inherently multifaceted discipline, relying on several branches of physics and engineering for design and analysis of large complex systems. These include aspects of reactor physics, reactor thermal-hydraulics, reactor safety, reliability and risk, instrumentation and control, training and education, human factors engineering, reactor materials, nonproliferation, etc. Safety and continued operation of existing reactors and new reactor designs are also being explored in the department. Cross-cutting areas of research include multi-physics and multi-scale modeling and simulation, high performance computing, reliability and risk, validation and verification, and uncertainty analysis.