System Analysis of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle.

Catalog description

Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: EGMN 359 or EGMN 455 . Enrollment is restricted to graduate students in the College of Engineering if prerequisites have not been met. Provides an in-depth technical and policy analysis of various options for the nuclear fuel cycle. Topics include uranium supply, enrichment fuel fabrication, in-core physics and fuel management of uranium, thorium and other fuel types, reprocessing, and waste disposal. Also covered are the principles of fuel-cycle economics and the applied reactor physics of both contemporary and proposed thermal and fast reactors. Nonproliferation aspects, disposal of excess weapons plutonium and transmutation of actinides and selected fission products in spent fuel are examined. Several state-of-the-art computer programs are provided for student use in problem sets and term papers.