Department of Nuclear Engineering

Head: Y. A. Hassan

Graduate Advisor: P. Tsvetkov

The nuclear engineer applies radiation and energy from nuclear sources to fields such as electricity generation, space craft propulsion, sterilization, food processing, industrial measurements and medical diagnostic and therapeutic treatments. Nuclear engineering is based on the principles of nuclear physics that govern radioactivity, fission and fusion; the production of heat and radiation in those processes; and the interaction of radiation with matter. The function of the nuclear engineer is to apply these principles to a wide range of challenging technological problems.

The Department of Nuclear Engineering offers the Master of Engineering, Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. The department also offers courses and faculty supervision for students pursuing the Doctor of Engineering degree. Admission to nuclear engineering requires a bachelor’s degree in engineering, chemistry, mathematics, physics or other related areas. Some nuclear physics background is highly desirable. Mathematics through differential equations is required but prefer through Linear Algebra.

The department does not have a foreign language requirement for the Ph.D. degree. Successful completion of a departmental qualifying exam is required.

Research opportunities are varied, with emphasis on nuclear fuels, solid/ion interactions, particle transport, large-scale scientific computing, materials and extreme environments, reactor safety, design of advanced nuclear reactors, thermal hydraulics, computational fluid mechanics, reactor kinetics and control, plutonium disposition, radiation interactions with living tissue, dosimetry and medical radionuclides.

The department offers a wide variety of facilities for instructional and research purposes. These include a well-equipped radiation measurements laboratory, a sub-critical reactor laboratory, access to a supercomputer facility and a University-wide UNIX network, a departmental computer facility including interconnected UNIX and Windows workstations with an extensive software library, a radiochemistry laboratory, thermal hydraulics laboratories, materials research laboratories, an AGN-201M low-power nuclear reactor, five low-energy ion accelerators and a large TRIGA research reactor located at the Texas A&M University Nuclear Science Center. An 88-inch cyclotron is also available for research in nuclear physics and engineering at the Cyclotron Institute.

NUEN 601 Nuclear Reactor Theory

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

NUEN 604 Radiation Interactions and Shielding

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.


NUEN 605 Radiation Detection and Nuclear Materials Measurement

Credits 3. 2 Lecture Hours. 3 Lab Hours.

Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

NUEN 606 Reactor Analysis and Experimentation

Credits 4. 3 Lecture Hours. 3 Lab Hours.

Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

NUEN 608 Fast Spectrum Systems and Applications

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 609 Nuclear Reactor Safety

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisites: NUEN 601 and NUEN 623 or approval of instructor.

NUEN 610 Design of Nuclear Reactors

Credits 4. 4 Lecture Hours.


NUEN 611 Radiation Detection and Measurement

Credits 3. 2 Lecture Hours. 3 Lab Hours.


NUEN 612 Radiological Safety and Hazards Evaluation

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisites: NUEN 613; MATH 308.

NUEN 613 Principles of Radiological Safety

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: NUEN 409.

NUEN 614 Probabilistic Risk Assessment Techniques in Nuclear Systems

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisites: NUEN 612 and NUEN 613.

NUEN 615 Theory and Applications of Microdosimetry

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: NUEN 613.

NUEN 618 Multiphysics Computations in Nuclear Science and Engineering

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisites: MATH 609 and NUEN 606.

NUEN 623 Nuclear Engineering Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.


NUEN 624 Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics and Stress Analysis

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.


NUEN 625 Neutron Transport Theory

Credits 4. 4 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisites: NUEN 606; MATH 602.

NUEN 627 Radiation-Hydrodynamics

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: MATH 602.

NUEN 629 Numerical Methods in Reactor Analysis

Credits 4. 4 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisites: NUEN 430; NUEN 606 or equivalent.

NUEN 630 Monte Carlo Methods for Particle Transport

Credits 3. 2 Lecture Hours. 2 Lab Hours.


NUEN 633 Radiation Measurements and Calibrations

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: NUEN 613.

NUEN 640 Severe Accident Analysis of Nuclear Facilities

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.


NUEN 644/MEEN 644 Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Cross Listing: MEEN 644/NUEN 644.

NUEN 646 Fundamentals of Space Life Sciences

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Cross Listing: NFSC 646 and KINE 646.

NUEN 647 Uncertainty Quantification in Nuclear Science and Engineering

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 650 Nuclear Nonproliferation and Arms Control

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: NUEN 601.

NUEN 651 Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Nuclear Material Safeguards

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: NUEN 601 or equivalent.

NUEN 656 Critical Analysis of Nuclear Security Data

Credits 4. 4 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisites: NUEN 650, NUEN 601 or equivalent.

NUEN 657 Emergency Response Dose Assessment

Credits 2. 2 Lecture Hours.


NUEN 661 Nuclear Fuel Performance

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisites: Graduate classification or consent of the instructor.

NUEN 662 Nuclear Materials Under Extreme Conditions

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 663 Fundamentals of Ion Solid Interactions

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

NUEN 669/INTA 669 Nuclear Terrorism Threat Assessment and Analysis

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: Graduate classification.
Cross Listing: INTA 669/NUEN 669.

NUEN 670 Introduction to Radiotherapy Physics

Credits 4. 3 Lecture Hours. 4 Lab Hours.


NUEN 673 Radiation Biology

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: NUEN 409 or graduate classification.

NUEN 674 Radiation Carcinogenesis

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

NUEN 675 Internal Dose Techniques

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisites: NUEN 612 and NUEN 613.

NUEN 676 Radiation Physics Instrumentation

Credits 3. 1 Lecture Hour. 6 Lab Hours.

Prerequisite: NUEN 402.

NUEN 677/MEEN 677 Aerosol Science

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisite: Graduate classification in engineering or approval of instructor.
Cross Listing: MEEN 677/NUEN 677.

NUEN 678 Waste Management in the Nuclear Industry

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours.

Prerequisites: Graduate classification and approval of instructor.

NUEN 681 Seminar

Credit 1. 1 Lecture Hour.

Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

NUEN 684 Professional Internship

Credits 1 to 6. 1 to 6 Other Hours.


NUEN 685 Directed Studies

Credits 1 to 12. 1 to 12 Other Hours.

Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

NUEN 689 Special Topics in...


Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

NUEN 691 Research

Credits 1 to 23. 1 to 23 Other Hours.

Research toward thesis or dissertation.

Adams, Marvin L, Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 1986

Ahmed, Karim E, Assistant Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, Purdue University, 2015

Chirayath, Sunil S, Associate Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, University of Madras, 2005

Ford, John R, Associate Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, University of Tennessee, 1992

Hassan, Yassin A, Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, University of Illinois, 1980

Kimber, Mark L, Assistant Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, Purdue University, 2008

Kirkland, Karen V, Associate Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, The University of Tokyo, 1999

Kurwitz, Richard C, Senior Lecturer
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, Texas A&M University, 2009

Marianno, Craig M, Assistant Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, Oregon State University, 2000

Marlow, William H, Senior Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, University of Texas, 1973

McDeavitt, Sean M, Associate Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, Purdue University, 1992

Morel, Jim E, Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, The University of New Mexico, 1979

Nguyen, Duy T, Research Assistant Professor
Nuclear Engineering
DEN, Ritsumeikan University, 2010

Ostrovskaya, Natela G, Senior Lecturer
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, Texas A&M University, 2005

Peddicord, Kenneth L, Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, University of Illinois, 1972

Poston, John W, Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1971

Ragusa, Jean C, Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, France, 2002

Shao, Lin, Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, University of Houston, 2001

Tsvetkov, Pavel V, Associate Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, Texas A&M University, 2002

Tsvetkova, Galina V, Lecturer
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, Texas A&M University, 2003

Vaghetto, Rodolfo, Research Assistant Professor
Nuclear Engineering
PHD, Texas A&M University, 2013