Nuclear Energy University of Cambridge

Overview

This Nuclear Energy course from the University of Cambridge was created in response to the emerging nuclear renaissance in the UK and around the world. In order to realise significant nuclear ambitions, a growing workforce of nuclear-skilled people is required. As well as a thorough education in technical aspects of nuclear energy, the course includes a grounding in the wider policy environment in which nuclear energy sits. It is also a highly flexible course, so that students may tailor the degree to suit their backgrounds, needs and preferences. Some students choose to focus entirely on engineering, while others choose options with greater weight on policy, economics, management or finance. This flexibility reflects the wide and varied needs of the nuclear industry.

The course is designed to cater not only to students wishing to enter the nuclear and energy industries, but also to those considering career paths in areas such as nuclear proliferation prevention, radiological protection, nuclear governance, nuclear medicine and health physics. While the prime focus of the course is to equip students for roles in industry, there is also a substantial research element in the course which would prepare students for a PhD programme.

Key facts:

The course will equip its graduates with a wide range of skills and knowledge, enabling them to fully engage in the nuclear sector.

Graduates will have developed a knowledge and understanding of nuclear technology. They will have received a thorough technical grounding in nuclear power generation, beginning with fundamental concepts and extending to a range of specialist topics. They will also be equipped with an appreciation of the wider social, political and environmental contexts of electricity generation in the 21st century, with a firm grounding in considering issues such as climate change, energy policy and public acceptability.

The programme will cultivate intellectual skills allowing graduates to engage with the technical, business and policy issues that the development and deployment of nuclear energy poses. These include skills in the modelling, simulation and experimental evaluation of nuclear energy systems; critically evaluating and finding alternative solutions to technical problems; applying professional engineering judgment to balance technological, environmental, ethical, economic and public policy considerations; understanding business practice in the areas of technology management, transfer and exploitation.

The programme will also develop transferable skills enabling graduates to work and progress in teams within and across the nuclear sector, including the management of time and information, the preparation of formal reports in a variety of styles, the deployment of critical reasoning and independent thinking.

Finally, graduates will gain research experience, having planned, executed, and evaluated an original investigative piece of work through a major dissertation.