Reddit reviews Introduction to Nuclear Engineering (3rd Edition)

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Introduction to Nuclear Engineering (3rd Edition)

Almost everyone starts with Lamarsh and Baratta. https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Nuclear-Engineering-John-Lamarsh/dp/0201824981

"Energy" from nuclear fission takes several forms. Furthermore, those various forms react in different ways with the surrounding nuclei and electrons.

First, a summary of the energy released by fission is given below (from here):

| MeV
:--------|:--------
Kinetic energy of fission fragments | 165 +/- 5
Instantaneous gamma rays | 7 +/- 1
Kinetic energy of neutrons | 5 +/- 0.5
Beta particles from product decay | 7 +/- 1
Gamma rays from product decay | 6 +/- 1
Neutrinos from product decay | 10
Total | 200 +/- 6

So, we have about 200 MeV (or million electron-volts where an electron volt is the energy required to move an electron across a potential difference of one volt which is approximately equal to 1.6×10^−19 joule) released per fission in the various forms listed.

Regarding how those forms interact, there are myriad ways. The fission fragments will collide with other nuclei, transferring some energy in the collisions. Gamma rays will typically interact in one of three ways:

1. Photoelectric Effect
   
2. Compton Scattering
   
3. Pair Production
   
   For the sake of space, I would recommend consulting another resource to learn more about each of these interactions (e.g., Wikipedia).
   
   Beta particles and electrons produced by gamma rays can undergo annihilation when a negatively- and positively-charged particle come together releasing at least two 511 keV (thousand electron-volts) gamma rays. In addition, as these charged particles decelerate, they release Bremsstrahlung (German for braking, neat factoid) gamma rays.
   
   Neutrinos are slippery beasts that do not interact to a significant degree.
   
   If you're truly interested in diving deeper, I highly recommend the Introduction to Nuclear Engineering by Lamarsh & Baratta. In addition to a discussion of these and other details regarding nuclear interactions, it will introduce the idea of the "cross-section" which is the probabilities of these various events taking place.
   
   Source(s): As cited and compiled by a practicing nuclear engineer.
   
   Edit: Incremental to get formatting just right.

Ehhh, there's no secret there. You can pick up a classic textbook with knowledge that a 1935 researcher would kill for easily. Heck, wikipedia has some really amazing nuclear resources. Now, actually building things, now that's tricky.

https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Nuclear-Engineering-John-Lamarsh/dp/0201824981

Ahhhhh, it all makes sense now, thanks for finally dropping a clue about your credentials. Sorry if I was brusque; I'll clue you into something. Years ago I was also an engineering grad student (also for free) and foolishly thought all that groovy stuff I was learning actually meant something. It does, don't get me wrong, but not in the way I thought it did. Professional engineering is not science; we make assumptions, we take short cuts, we use handbooks and correlations. We have to be able to call upon that school knowledge to help guide us in making decisions but the work we do is something entirely different. Diffusivities (be they related to neutrons, heat transfer, momentum transfer, or mass transfer) are known well enough over the appropriate regions for most engineering calculation. You may claim that this is false, or far from the truth, but I don't have the time to go over 3 semesters of nuclear power plant design theory. What I will do, though, since you are in engineer school as we type, is point you to the library: this one and that one are good starting places. A tip: if you mention Lamarsh in a question about nuclear engineering, every nuclear engineer in sight will automatically treat you with respect and answer your question or point you to someone who can.




I know I'm not going to change your mind about this so I'll stop trying; you do seem very passionate about it and I respect that. However, I do resent you implication that I'm only doing this for money(ha!), prestige (double-ha!), or curiosity (well, I am curious, but not really my purpose for working in this industry).




I also just noticed that you edited your original reply while I've been typing. I'm sorry if I've upset you, but you do have a rather abrasive way of conversing in these threads and before I realized where you were coming from I wasn't sure how to approach it. For the record I do not work at a plant but at a vendor (we design and analyze nuclear safety systems) and I hold both a B.S. and M.S. in nuclear engineering, concentrated in thermal-hydraulics design and analysis (although apparently this doesn't make me a real engineer in you definition). I guess the really infuriating thing about your threads is that you're painting an entire sector of the engineering community with the same brush, but no bother I guess. I'd like to reply to each of the searing accusations you put forth in your edited reply, but I fear they would fall on deaf ears. If you'd like to actually ask me a real engineering question and get a real answer, feel free to PM me, these threads just aren't suited to that type of exchange.




Best of luck on your finals and, I assume, your Quals (if you haven't already taken them).

If you understand everything in this free textbook, you'll be way ahead of most undergrads with a nuclear engineering degree in terms of chain reaction physics. Unfortunately it's hard to get through without some instruction. Also there's a lot more to engineering. Another good introductory book that deals a little more with engineering but is not free is Lamarsh.

Basically, nuclear engineers deal with the nuclear core. They deal with the chain reaction, the heat removal, the fuel performance, the material degradation, and the coupled transient performance. Once the heat is produced, it's up to mechanical, structural, civil, control, reliability, and electrical engineers to turn that heat into usable electricity.