MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering

New technological breakthroughs and increasing societal needs have enlarged the role of nuclear engineering in society. Probably the most familiar nuclear engineering application is the production of electricity by means of nuclear power. Over 20% of electricity in the USA is derived from nuclear power. Concerns about greenhouse warming have led to a resurgence of interest in the design of advanced nuclear reactors which, as is true of all nuclear reactors, release no greenhouse gasses.

Nuclear engineers also play a vital role in the national security of the country. These activities include the development of advanced reactors for our naval fleet, and new diagnostics for monitoring stockpile reduction activities, as well as the disposition of long-lived fissile materials and non-fissile nuclear waste from commercial nuclear power plants. Another major area of nuclear engineering energy research is controlled thermonuclear fusion. The promise of electricity generation by the fusion process remains spectacular: unlimited fuel easily accessible to all, and power plants that are virtually pollution free with very low radioactivity.

Often unanticipated are the non-energy applications of nuclear engineering. For example, the area of radiation science and technology is currently experiencing substantial growth, particularly the sub-area of bionuclear science and technology. This sub-area focuses on medical applications of nuclear technology, and includes the use of radiation for diagnostics (e.g., imaging), therapy (e.g., boron neutron capture synovectomy for rheumatoid arthritis), and the development of accelerator-based technology for the production of hard-to-obtain medical isotopes.

Finally, nuclear engineers make important contributions to materials science and industrial material processing. One important application is the development and associated scientific research of neutron beam diagnostics, allowing for the first time an understanding of materials behavior on the mesoscopic length scale (i.e., hundreds of molecular diameters). Another industrial application involves the increasing use of plasma processing for the semiconductor industry. Our understanding of plasma behavior, which has fostered these new applications, derives largely from years of fusion science research.