Principles Of Nuclear Engineering: From Fission Fundamentals to Reactor Design, Safety, and Power Generation

To understand a nuclear power plant, you have to follow a single idea from the heart of the atom to the turbine hall. Most resources hand you only one piece of that journey; this book follows the whole of it, in order, from the physics of the nucleus to the systems of a working plant.

Students and early-career engineers often meet nuclear engineering as a scattered collection of topics, with the physics in one book, reactor theory in another, and thermal-hydraulics and safety in still others. The connections are left for the reader to reconstruct, which produces a working vocabulary without a working picture: equations that can be solved in isolation but not assembled into the logic of a real reactor.

This book closes that gap with one continuous path through sixteen connected chapters, from the structure of the nucleus and the origin of binding energy, through the behaviour of neutrons and the conditions for a sustained chain reaction, to the thermal, material, and safety engineering of a complete power plant. Every result is derived from stated assumptions, and every number is calculated with its units carried through each step, so the methods can be reproduced on new problems rather than merely recognised.

What's inside the book

• Reason from fundamentals, following derivations that begin with physical assumptions and end with usable engineering results.

• Learn by worked example, with fully solved problems that show every step, every assumption, and every unit.

• Confirm your understanding with practice problems whose answers can be derived from the chapter itself.

• See the whole system, understanding how a choice of moderator shapes the neutron spectrum, the fuel, the thermal design, and plant safety.

• Interpret reactor behaviour, including criticality, reactivity feedback, and the control of power over time.

• Study safety and regulation within a clear framework, grounded in Canadian practice while remaining internationally relevant.

• Use the book two ways, as a course text to work through in sequence and as a dependable reference through its chapter summaries of key equations.

Key topics covered:

• Atomic and nuclear structure;
• radioactivity and the interaction of radiation with matter;
• nuclear reactions and fission;
• neutron cross sections and nuclear data;
• neutron diffusion theory;
• reactor criticality and the multiplication factor;
• reactor kinetics, control, and reactivity feedback;
• the nuclear fuel cycle;
• reactor thermal-hydraulics and heat transport;
• nuclear materials and fuel behaviour;
• reactor types and power-plant systems;
• radiation protection and dosimetry;
• nuclear safety and risk analysis;
• and waste management, decommissioning, and the future of the field.

Who this book is for: It is written for upper-level undergraduates in engineering or physics, for beginning graduate students, and for practising engineers moving into nuclear work from an adjacent discipline, as well as instructors seeking a coherent, example-driven text. A working knowledge of calculus, differential equations, introductory modern physics, and basic heat transfer is assumed; the concepts specific to nuclear science are developed from the beginning.

Begin building a connected understanding of nuclear engineering, from the physics of the nucleus to the systems of a working plant, and keep a dependable reference close as you go. Open the book and start with the reasoning that ties the whole subject together.