Nuclear Science Week
The phrase, “nuclear engineering” may immediately summon an idea of explosions and testing in the desert. While that is certainly one aspect of nuclear engineering, it is not a focus of the work done by Virginia Tech faculty.
It our program, emphasis generally falls into one of four main topics: nuclear power, security, medicine, and policy. Specific areas of study include nuclear materials and fuel (both experimental & theoretical), particle transport methods, reactor physics, reactor shielding, radiation detection, and thermal-hydraulics and reactor safety (both experimental and modeling).
The team includes six dedicated faculty, 11 affiliate faculty, and two adjunct faculty.
Research facilities include a dedicated high-performance computer cluster for parallel computing, a dedicated Server for VRS-RAPID immersive virtual software, a visionarium Hypercube Immersive environment, CHANDLER antineutronic detection system and related laboratories, a Molten Salt Chemistry Loop, a two-phase flow visualization and measurement loop, and more.
Collaborations with several other institutions expand the scope of education and provide access to facilities for testing and implementation. Access to live research reactors is available through MOUs with the University of Maryland Research Reactor, NIST Center for Neutron Research, the TRIGA Research Reactor at the Jozef Stefan Institute. Students have already been active with these partnerships, putting what they design to work in live environments.
