Courses
Four courses totaling 12 credit hours (generally, two nuclear engineering courses and two political science courses) are required. Certificate students choose their courses depending on their interests. Their plan must be approved by the certificate program director. All courses must be NC State courses; transfer credits are not accepted.
Choose two from these Nuclear Engineering courses (all are offered online):
NE 501 - Reactor Analysis and Design
Units: 3
Elements of nuclear reactor theory for reactor core design and operation. Includes one-group neutron transport and mutigroup diffusion models, analytical and numerical criticality search, and flux distribution and calculations for homogeneous and heterogeneous reactors, slowing down models, introduction to perturbation theory.
Offered in Spring Only
NE 504 - Radiation Safety and Shielding
Units: 3
A basic course in radiation safety and environmental aspects of nuclear power generation. Topics include radiation interaction, photon attenuation, shielding, internal and external dose evaluation, reactor effluents and release of radioactivity into the environment, transportation and disposal of radioactive waste; and environmental impact of nuclear power plants. Term-long project.
Offered in Fall Only
NE 505 - Reactor Systems
Units: 3
Nuclear power plant systems: PWR, BWR and advanced concepts. Design criteria, design parameters, economics, primary and secondary loops, safety systems, reactor control and protection systems, containment, accident and transient behaviors, core design, and reactivity control mechanisms. Term-long project. Credit for both NE 405 and NE 505 is not allowed
Offered in Spring Only
NE 512 - Nuclear Fuel Cycles
Units: 3
Processing of nuclear fuel with description of mining, milling, conversion, enrichment, fabrication, irradiation, shipping, reprocessing and waste disposal. Fuel cycle economics and fuel cost calculation. In-core and out-of-core nuclear fuel management, engineering concepts and methodology. Term-long project. Credit for both NE 412 and NE 512 is not allowed
Offered in Fall Only
NE 520 - Radiation and Reactor Fundamentals
Units: 3
Basics of nuclear physics and reactor physics that are needed for graduate studies in nuclear engineering. Concepts covered include, atomic and nuclear models, nuclear reactions, nuclear fission, radioactive decay, neutron interactions, nuclear reactors, neutron diffusion in non-multiplying and multiplying systems, and basic nuclear reactor kinetics.
Offered in Fall Only
NE 541 - Nuclear Nonproliferation Technology and Policy
Units: 3
Technology and policy challenges and solutions to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Topics include: issues of nuclear proliferation inherent to civilian nuclear power development; technologies, processes, and policies for safeguarding nuclear materials and technology; integrating the preceding subjects to strengthen the global nuclear nonproliferation regime. Includes a field trip to Oak Ridge National Laboratory during Spring Break to gain hands-on experience with safeguards measurements of nuclear material. The field trip is required; there is no cost to the student.
Offered in Spring Only
NE 723 - Neutron Transport Theory
Units: 3
Advanced theory of neutron transport and computational methods of solving particle transport [linear Boltzmann] equation for reactor physics problems. Principle topics: models of neutron transport; analytic methods for solving transport equation; asymptotic diffusion limit; PN and SPN methods, homogenization methodology; numerical methods for multidimensional problems; computational methods for multiphysics problems. Objective is to enable students to read literature and perform relevant analysis of neutron transport and reactor-physics problems.
Offered in Fall Only
NE 770 - Nuclear Radiation Attenuation
Units: 3
Advanced course in computational methods for neutron and photon transport. Methods include Monte Carlo and deterministic solutions to the transport equation for both fixed source and eigenvalue problems. Digital computers employed in the solution of practical problems.
Offered in Fall Only
YEAR: Offered Alternate Years
NE 795 - Advanced Topics In Nuclear Engineering I
Units: 1 - 3
A study of recent developments in nuclear engineering theory and practice.
Offered in Fall and Spring
Choose these two Political Science courses (both are offered online):
PS 560 - Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy & Process
Units: 3
Policy and processes associated with global nuclear nonproliferation efforts. Special emphasis on the history of the development of the global nonproliferation regime, current challenges, and future threats.
Offered in Fall and Spring
PS 561 - Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation
Units: 3
No understanding of world politics is complete without an accounting of the role of nuclear weapons. Observers have credited the nuclear revolution with everything from responsibility for the longest period without a great-power war in modern history to bringing humanity to the precipice of annihilation. This course gives students an understanding of the role that nuclear weapons have played in world politics over the past seven decades. The course explores the ways these weapons have been incorporated into military force structures; the roles they have played in military strategy; and the effort to control their spread, limit deployments and stockpiles, avoid nuclear war, and prevent nuclear terrorism. This course will be of use to graduate students with an interest in international relations, foreign policy, and national security. No prior background in international security or nuclear policy is required.
Offered in Fall Only