Preface
Nuclear engineering
Nuclear engineering encompasses many different fields. Therefore, there is not really any singular textbooks encompassing the discipline. Currently, there are three main textbooks used in the United States –
- Introduction to nuclear engineering – John R. Lamarsh
- Nuclear reactor analysis – James Duderstadt
- Fundamentals of nuclear science and engineering – J. Kenneth Shultis, Richard E. Faw
- Nuclear chemical engineering – M. Benedict, T. H. Pigford, H. W. Levi
Typically, a beginning nuclear engineering course will use either of the first three textbooks. I use Lamarsh. The fourth book is the top reference text for chemical engineering in the discipline.
I do recommend at least owning one of them for reference. However, these books can be very costly, so owning all is difficult to ask of a student.
Motivation
In addition to the prohibitive cost, over the last decade, the discipline has been quite dynamic. Advanced reactors are being developed with over forty startup companies in the United States, particularly microreactors. The Department of Energy is funding some of them to demonstrate these advanced concepts. NuScale Power, LLC, has developed a small modular reactor and will deploy them on the Idaho National Laboratory site by the end of the 2020s. That is just reactors. There have been major developments in regards to international safeguards. Digitization of instrumentation for the large scale power plants will introduce new vulnerabilities that will challenge cybersecurity. Similarly, these new advanced concepts will feature total digital controls. Some will even be fully automated. This is only a cursory overview of the discipline. There includes other interesting advancements, including new fuel designs, storage, transportation, hybrid energy systems, human factors, and economics.
While neutrons actually have behaved the same since the beginning of time, and there will still be a need for understanding fundamental concepts contained in the above cited list of textbooks, the dynamic landscape of nuclear engineering would require a new text every year. This is completely unreasonable for student and faculty.
Therefore, I have compiled this OER of online, publicly available resources to enhance and supplement fundamental knowledge in nuclear engineering, in order to provide a more comprehensive learning experience for the student, in an effort to prepare them for professional careers in the discipline.
Target
Students using this OER should have at least completed or be at the junior undergraduate level, in terms of background knowledge needed. The OER should be used as a supplementary resource for an introductory nuclear engineering course in companion to one of the textbooks listed above. It is intended that the OER will be a ‘living document’, evolving with the discipline in order to provide use beyond the classroom.
Structure and content
The OER is broadly structured as follows –
- Lectures and slides
- Reports and papers
- Videos and other media
Sections will invariably have some overlap – resources in one section contain information that is applicable to another section. The intent at this version of organization is to just make it easier for the student to find the information they need.
