NRE

It crossed my mind the other day that I actually know what I'm doing. After six and a half semesters, I finally understand what nuclear engineering is. Granted, it's a purely academic understanding, as I have zero practical experience whatsoever, but it's something. Like most things that cross my mind, I figured I'd write it out here for the benefit of anyone who as ever asked me "So, what do nuclear engineers do?" and received an answer along the lines of "uuhhuhuhhh...nuclear engineering".

If you're looking for cool stuff about weapons or fusion or spacecraft or dosimetry, look elsewhere. This is just my perception of what a nuclear plant engineer does, which is what I think most people have in mind when they ask me what nuclear engineers do.

What do nuclear engineers do? Generate electrical power. This may seem obvious and trivial to some, but I didn't know that until my second semester. This is probably due in part to my not knowing until this semester that petroleum engineering was not a thing outside of Texas. (But how do y'all get your oil? Oh...) Just something else to mark up on the Molly Didn't Realize this Wasn't Universal tally.

Nuclear engineers are responsible for designing/controlling/maintaining/what have you fission reactions in nuclear fuel. This takes a lot of fun math and reactor physics. Basically all you need to know is that neutrons move around and someone with a nuclear engineering degree knows where and how fast and if that's going to be dangerous or not. Fission results in energy. Heat, mainly. That heat has to go somewhere. Someone with a nuclear engineering degree figures out how that heat best gets from the fuel into the working fluid of a thermodynamic cycle, which runs through turbines to generate power.

In short, one hunk of what nuclear engineers do has to do with nuclear reactions and the movement of neutrons. The other hunk of what they do has to do with the movement of fluids and the transfer of heat. And of course all of the design specifications that go along with moving fluids and high heat transfer and radioactive materials. That's why we take a bunch of mechanical engineering classes in conjunction with specialized classes on nuclear physics.

I only wish someone had told me this a few years ago. I'd have probably paid more attention in Fluid Dynamics. And maybe even in Heat Transfer, too.