Two nuclear power plant cooling towers set against a deep blue sky.

Nuclear Engineering and Materials

Voiland CollegeWSU School of Mechanical and Materials EngineeringResearchNuclear Engineering and Materials

Nuclear power currently accounts for ~20% of U.S. electricity production and is a key component in the growing U.S. green energy economy, providing CO2-free baseload power that will supplement other renewables. Nuclear energy is also crucial for enabling commercialized and deep-space explorations and establishing extraterrestrial human habitations. WSU is a leader in nuclear research in the west, housing a 1 MW TRIGA (Teaching Research Isotope production General Atomics) reactor for research and service and a Department of Energy national laboratory located in Richland, WA. Eastern Washington has also been a leader in the environmental remediation of nuclear waste because of its proximity to the Hanford site. Research on nuclear science at WSU encompasses a wide range of activities including nuclear fuel cycle, nonproliferation security, reactor safety monitoring, nuclear medicine, radioecology, development of novel materials for sustainable nuclear power generation, nuclear waste form development, and policy and workforce development. WSU is also working closely with the private sector in the Pacific Northwest and national labs to develop a Western US Fusion Commercialization Hub and state-of-the-art hot cell facilities for studying radioactive materials. Our approach to nuclear science supports the WSU grand challenge of smart systems and national security and builds on our strong existing partnerships with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

One of the keys to nuclear energy thriving in the U.S. is a sustained public perception of responsible stewardship of all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle, including operational safety, material security, and long-term environmental measures.

WSU currently offers a certificate in Nuclear Materials, Science, & Engineering. Students graduating with focus in the nuclear sciences are well-prepared for jobs in science and engineering, including local regional opportunities with large engineering companies like Bechtel, WRPS, CH2MHill, high-tech startups such as Terrapower and Avalanche Energy, and national laboratories such as PNNL and INL. WSU’s 1 MW TRIGA reactor, housed in the Nuclear Science Center, not only trains undergraduate students to be licensed reactor operators, but also operates cash-positive because of its service to the nuclear medicine isotope commercial community and its core facilities to support college faculty and national laboratories nuclear research. Additionally, a long-standing program at the WSU Institute for Materials Research focuses on nuclear physics and radiation detection for homeland security and energy. All of these resources and capabilities uniquely establish WSU as a strategic center for nuclear science and enable us to perform world class research and education in this area.

Our diverse groups of WSU faculty members are committed to safe nuclear power and environmental stewardship and hold expertise in complementary areas. In the Voiland College of Engineering & Architecture (VCEA), faculty in the School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering (MME) perform research in nuclear fuels (Field, McCloy), reactor structural materials (Field, McCloy, Zare), reactor monitoring (McCloy), nuclear waste forms (McCloy), radiation detection (McCloy), solid mechanics of materials in extreme environments (Beckman, Zare), environmental chemistry (McCloy, Lin), and nuclear fusion energy (Zare, Leachman). New research is targeting the use of radiation-resistant robotics for environmental remediation of nuclear sites, which is being pursued by joint programs between MME (Swensen) and the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).

Topics in Nuclear Engineering and Materials

  • Nuclear waste forms
  • Radiation and plasma effects on materials
  • Room temperature radiation detectors
  • Stress corrosion cracking of reactor components

Faculty in Nuclear Engineering and Materials