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what kind of fund stuff do you get to do as a nuclear engineer?
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Fun stuff you get to do as a nuclear engineer?
- Thread starter Pythagorean
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Discussion Overview
The discussion revolves around the various activities and experiences of nuclear engineers, touching on both technical aspects and personal enjoyment within the field. Participants share insights into their work, including analysis, modeling, and participation in professional communities, as well as the challenges and satisfaction derived from their roles.
Discussion Character
- Exploratory
- Technical explanation
- Conceptual clarification
Main Points Raised
- Some participants describe their work involving thermo-mechanical analysis of nuclear fuel under various operating conditions, requiring the development of models for physical and mechanical properties.
- There are mentions of using finite element methods (FEM) and multiphysics models to simulate experiments for verification and validation of models and codes.
- One participant notes their involvement in reactor design studies during graduate school and current work in surveillance of fabrication processes related to fuel and core components.
- Discussion includes the design and analysis of exotic nuclear systems, such as spacecraft propulsion systems, although this area is noted as having low demand currently.
- Participants express enjoyment in their work, with mentions of attending seminars and conferences, and the importance of networking within engineering and technical societies.
- There is a question about the relationship between thermo-mechanical analysis and chaos theory in plasmas, with a response clarifying that while not directly related, there are stochastic elements in fuel behavior.
- One participant reflects on the satisfaction of making predictions through numerical models that align with experimental outcomes, emphasizing the role of numerical analysis in physics and engineering.
Areas of Agreement / Disagreement
Participants generally share positive sentiments about their work and the field of nuclear engineering, but there are varying perspectives on specific technical aspects and the relationship between different scientific theories. The discussion remains open-ended without a consensus on all points raised.
Contextual Notes
Some technical details regarding modeling approaches and the challenges of predicting fuel behavior are mentioned, but there are no definitive conclusions drawn about the effectiveness of different methods or the implications of the discussed theories.
Who May Find This Useful
Individuals interested in nuclear engineering, physics, and numerical modeling may find the insights shared in this discussion relevant to their academic and professional pursuits.
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Danger
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One of the first steps was learning to spell his name... 
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Danger said:One of the first steps was learning to spell his name...
doh! And I can't edit titles here can I?
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Doc Al
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But I can... 
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Doc Al said:But I can...
thanx kindly, Doc.
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Danger
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...[/color]- #7
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I feel like we just had Astronuc's birthday party without him or something.
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Astronuc
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Mostly thermo-mechanical (numerical and highly non-linear) analysis of nuclear fuel under the normal steady-state and transient operating conditions, and not so normal conditions that hopefully will never happen except in special experiments. This requires the development of special models of the physical and mechanical properties of the materials of the fuel and its environment. Then one has to model the power/irradiation history with reasonable spatial resolution. We use special FEM and multiphysics models. We then simulate separate-effects and integrated experiments to verify and validate particular models and the integrated codes, and then we perform predictive analysis.Similar work is done on core structures.
Way back when, in grad school, I did things like core/reactor design studies.
Then there are special areas in which I work, such as surveillance of fabrication processes and how they are applied to fuel and core components.
Then there is the really unusual stuff (design and analyses) with exotic nuclear systems like spacecraft propulsion systems (which is not in high demand these days
).And various insundry.
And participate in PF.
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Cyrus
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He also does weddings and bar-mitzvahs.
Ba-dump-tish.
Ba-dump-tish.
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Mallignamius
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Whew! I thought something happened to him. Don't do that!
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Astronuc
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Mallignamius said:
I thought something had happened to me too! Actually, I enjoy what I do, especially since two friends recently hired on, and there are four of us from the same grad program at the company.
I also do seminars and attend conferences. I used to travel to Europe twice a year and Japan/Asia at least once a year to give seminars on nuclear technology and related subjects. I hope to be doing more of that.
I also participate in a number of engineering and technical societies related to materials, energy and nuclear technology.
It keeps me busy.
Oh, and I need to find my replacement.
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Mallignamius
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Hah, I was about to post a reply asking what you just answered- enjoyment. I am looking at school this fall and a physics career is one of my choices. The other being programming. Physics I think I would love... Programming I think I could handle.
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Astronuc said:
Is this in any way related to chaos theory in plasmas? SOC systems and what not?
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Astronuc
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Well, it's not plasma. We like to keep our fuel solid and dimensionally stable, but there is bounded chaos in the sense that it is stochastic. This is particularly challenging when trying to define the technical limit(s) of operating fuel and then operating as close to the technical limit without failing.Pythagorean said:
I also get involved in why things fail when they were not expected to do so. So I have to know a little about methods of NDT and DT.
Or do both. There is a lot of numerical analysis in physics and engineering now, because we can't possible do experiments on all conceivable combinations of variables. So we build numerical models based on what limited experiments we can do, and then we try to predict/forecast what happens in a given situation. It's very satisfying to do a prediction beforehand and then have an experiment or actual situation do pretty much what the simulation predicted.Mallignamius said:
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Mallignamius
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Astronuc said:Or do both. There is a lot of numerical analysis in physics and engineering now, because we can't possible do experiments on all conceivable combinations of variables. So we build numerical models based on what limited experiments we can do, and then we try to predict/forecast what happens in a given situation. It's very satisfying to do a prediction beforehand and then have an experiment or actual situation do pretty much what the simulation predicted.
I like that! Now I actually have a direction to look into.