Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering

Head of the Department: James F. Stubbins
214 Nuclear Engineering Laboratory
103 South Goodwin Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801-2984
(217) 333-3598 Admissions, (217) 333-2295 Main Line
E-mail: nuclear@uiuc.edu

Graduate Degree Programs

The Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering offers programs leading to Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in nuclear engineering.

Admission

Application for admissions to the master’s and doctoral degree programs is open to all graduates in engineering, mathematics, and the physical sciences with a grade point average of 3.0 (A = 4.0) or better for the last 60 hours of undergraduate work and any graduate work completed. Prerequisites for admission include a course in ordinary differential equations plus one other mathematics course beyond calculus; an intermediate course in atomic and nuclear physics or interaction of radiation with matter; a course in electrical circuit theory; a course in thermodynamics; a course in fluid mechanics or continuum mechanics; and a course introducing nuclear engineering. A student may be admitted before completion of these prerequisites, but he or she must allow additional time to make up for these deficiencies; courses taken to make up such deficiencies will not count toward the number of units required for the graduate degree. Transcripts and letters of recommendation are required. The GRE is not required but is recommended. Information such as undergraduate class rank is also recommended. All applicants whose native language is not English are required to have a TOEFL score of at least 550 (paper-based), 213 (computer-based), or 80 (iBT). Applicants may be exempt from the TOEFL if certain criteria are met. TOEFL scores below 610 (paper-based), 253 (computer-based) , or 102 (iBT) indicate the need for further English study. This consists of enrollment in English as a Second Language (ESL) courses based on an ESL Placement Test (EPT) taken upon arrival at the University.

Master of Science

The M.S. degree takes at least two semesters and a summer session to complete and normally takes three semesters and a summer session. 32 graduate hours of graduate work are required, including an M.S. thesis. The curriculum requires courses covering the fundamentals of nuclear engineering and radiation interaction with matter, plus two or more courses in an area of concentration chosen by the student in consultation with an adviser. Typical areas are: fission engineering including reactor physics, radiation transport, thermal hydraulics and reactor safety, fuel cycles, shielding and radiation effects and radioactive waste management and site remediation; fusion engineering and technology; plasma engineering and processing; nuclear materials, corrosion, and irradiation damage; neutron scattering; neutron activation analysis; nuclear nonproliferation and public policy issues; MRI applications, radiation protection, radiation-based therapy, biomedical imaging and health physics; and computational methods including Lie Group, integral-differential equation, Monte Carlo, and fuzzy logic applications.

Doctor of Philosophy

Course requirements for the Ph.D. degree include at least 32 graduate hours of course credit beyond that required for the M.S. degree. In addition, 32 or more graduate hours of doctoral thesis credit are required and typically take two or more additional years to complete. Students desiring to work toward the Ph.D. degree must pass the departmental qualifying examination to be admitted to doctoral study. The doctoral candidate must complete coursework, pass a preliminary doctoral examination, write a doctoral thesis, and successfully defend the thesis at a final examination before a doctoral faculty committee. A doctoral student typically takes several courses in nuclear engineering plus additional courses that support a specialized research area and/or provide background in mathematics and science and that satisfy a minor in a related discipline. Under exceptional circumstances and by approved petition, doctoral research maybe undertaken off campus.

Research Interests

Faculty research interests cover a wide range including, but not limited to, those listed above under the Master of Science section. Faculty in other related fields are available to supervise research for students through formal “affiliate faculty” appointments.

Facilities

A wide range of major research resources are available for nuclear engineering research. A dense plasma focus fusion-related device for high-temperature plasma studies and an ultrahigh-vacuum laboratory for plasma-material interaction studies are available. Graduate students often perform interdisciplinary research work in the Materials Research Laboratory, Microelectronics Laboratory, Coordinated Science Laboratory, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. The mechanical behavior program provides a variety of facilities for studies of nuclear materials. Other radiological laboratories are also available for environmental studies and nuclear spectroscopy, health physics and radiation studies, nuclear-waste management, thermal hydraulics and reactor safety, reactor physics and reactor kinetics, controlled nuclear fusion, direct energy conversion and lasers and plasma physics. The Department also has a direct link to the National Magnetic Fusion Computer Center in Livermore, California , and is a participant in the Computational Science and Engineering Program on campus. In addition, a wide array of microcomputers and workstations are available.

Financial Aid

Most graduate students receive some form of financial aid. Fellowships are available to support the best applicants. Other students are supported as graduate research, teaching, or general assistants. All applicants, regardless of U.S. citizenship, whose native language is not English and who wish to be considered for teaching assistantships must take the Test of Spoken English (TSE) and achieve a score of 50. Financial aid includes federally sponsored traineeships and fellowships and University and industry fellowships. The University is approved for several fellowships including those from the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, Hertz, and the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations. Part- and full-time assistantships included exemption from tuition and partial fees.