Syllabus

This page includes a course calendar.

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Prerequisites

22.211, 22.312

Textbooks and Readings

There is no required textbook for the course. Readings will be assigned from various regulatory, industry, and scientific sources.

Assignments

Students are required to complete nine homework problems and a midterm paper on national nuclear energy strategy.

Grading

ACTIVITIES PERCENTAGES
Homework (Weighted, see below) 35%
National Nuclear Energy Strategy Paper 20%
Midterm Oral Exam 10%
Final Oral Exam 35%

Homework Weighting

The score of each homework problem will be adjusted in accordance with the following relative weighting:

PROBLEMS # MAXIMUM SCORES
1 20
2 60
3 15
4 25
5 40
6 25
7 10
8 50
9 20

Calendar

LEC # TOPICS INSTRUCTORS KEY DATES
1 Nuclear Energy System Strategies Prof. Todreas
2 Design Goals and Interrelationship of Core Design Parameters Prof. Todreas
3 Thermal Hydraulic Design Requirements - LWR Steady State and Transient Design Prof. Todreas Problem 1 due (topic of Lec #2)
4 Thermal Hydraulic in Safety Analysis Prof. Todreas
5 Reactor Physics - Design Parameters for PWRs Prof. Apostolakis
6 Design Requirements - Safety and Critical Safety Functions Prof. Apostolakis Problem 2 due (topic of Lec #3)
7 Reactor Safety: The Emergence of Probabilistic Risk Assessment Prof. Apostolakis
8 Reactor Physics - Design Parameters for GFRs Chris Handwerk, Course TA Problem 3 due (topic of Lec #5)
9 PRA Methodology Overview Prof. Apostolakis Problem 4 due (topic of Lec #6 and #7)
10 Probabilistic Calculations - I Prof. Apostolakis
11 Probabilistic Calculations - II Prof. Apostolakis Paper: U.S. National Nuclear Strategy (topic of Lec #1) due two days after Lec #11
12 Risk-Informed Changes to the Licensing Basis-I Prof. Apostolakis
13 Applying Safety Regulations to Plant Operations Prof. Kadak Problem 5 due (topic of Lec #10 and 11)
14 Risk-Informed Changes to the Licensing Basis-II Prof. Apostolakis
15 Large Break LOCA Analysis/Result Prof. Todreas
16 The Maintenance Rule I Prof. Apostolakis
17 The Maintenance Rule II

Problem 6 due (topic of Lec #13)

18 Plant Economic Evaluation Prof. Todreas
19 Plant Economic Evaluation (cont.) Prof. Todreas
20 Materials Selection Process Prof. Ballinger Problem 7 due (topic of Lec #15)
21 Radiation Damage Effects and Their Design Implications Prof. Ballinger
22 Environmental Degradation and its Design Implications Prof. Ballinger
23 PWR Materials Applications Prof. Ballinger Problem 8 due (topic of Lec #18)
24 GFR Materials Applications Prof. Ballinger
25 Risk Informed Design
Guidance for Gen IV Reactors
Prof. Apostolakis Problem 9 due (topic of Lec #21 and #22) two days after Lec #25
26 Integration of Design Process - IRIS as the Example Guest Lecturer: Bojan Petrovich, Westinghouse
27 Integration of Design Process - 1: IRIS Plant, 2: Sample Oral Prof. Todreas/Prof. Apostolakis
28 Student Oral Exams, 45 min. (Scheduled to Meet Individual Student Availability) Exam Committee