This video-enhanced document from the FRONTLINE Web site explains how nuclear fission and nuclear reprocessing work.
Learn how scientists regulate a nuclear reactor in this animation-enhanced essay from the FRONTLINE Web site.
This course integrates studies of engineering sciences, reactor physics and safety assessment into nuclear power plant design. Topics include materials issues in plant design and operations, aspects of thermal design, fuel depletion and fission-product poisoning, and temperature effects on reactivity, safety considerations in regulations and operations, such as the evolution of the regulatory process, the concept of defense in depth, General Design Criteria, accident analysis, probabilistic risk assessment, and risk-informed regulations.
This course introduces fundamental properties of the neutron. It covers reactions induced by neutrons, nuclear fission, slowing down of neutrons in infinite media, diffusion theory, the few-group approximation, point kinetics, and fission-product poisoning. It emphasizes the nuclear physics bases of reactor design and its relationship to reactor engineering problems.
Start a chain reaction, or introduce non-radioactive isotopes to prevent one. Control energy production in a nuclear reactor! (Previously part of the Nuclear Physics simulation - now there are separate Alpha Decay and Nuclear Fission sims.)
This video segment adapted from FRONTLINE looks at nuclear fission as an energy source that can be used to generate electricity.
Nuclear Warfare (PHYS20061) is offered by the Physics Department as an introductory course for non-science majors. The course provides an overview of a broad range of topics regarding nuclear weapons. Although the emphasis is on nuclear weapons, we will consider other weapons of mass destruction, particularly in the context of the threat due to terrorism and rogue states. The goal is to be informed of the background history and technical issues so as to know how best to deal with them in the future.
The course will start with the history and emergence of weapons of mass destruction technologies as a consequence of World War I and World War II, culminating in the development and use of the nuclear bomb. This will be followed by a discussion of the underlying physics principles for a basic understanding of nuclear weapons technology and effects. The effects of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) will be discussed in terms of the atmospheric, biological, and medical effects together with the implications for society. We will include a discussion of the diplomatic, political, and ethical implications of possession and use of nuclear weapons and WMD. We will also take a look at the rise of modern terrorism and the threat posed by the WMD and terrorism now and in the future.
