Students should be familiar with quantum mechanical concepts from modern physics, including the concepts of wavefunctions and the discrete energy structure that accompanies a bound system.

Course Objectives: It is the instructor's intention to...

introduce students to nuclear structure, partly by contrasting this structure with atomic structure.

teach students to determine when energy-releasing reactions are and are not possible, and most specifically what makes fission and fusion energetically possible.

explain how conservation principles (energy, angular momentum, parity) play a role in determining whether decay is possible and how this affects the associated half-life.

introduce students to the concept of a cross-section and most especially neutron interaction cross-sections.

explain the characteristic energy-dependence of neutron cross-sections, including scattering and absorption, with particular emphasis on fission and resonance behavior.

Course Outcomes: Students must be able to...

solve steady wave mechanics problems beginning from the appropriate form of Schrodinger's equation and employing the appropriate boundary and interfacial conditions.

explain shell models of atomic and nuclear physics and explain why the "magic numbers" of nuclear physics differ from those of atomic physics... also, explain the implications of these results for selection of constituent materials for nuclear reactor cores.

use the shell model to predict ground state spin and parity for a given isotope.

describe the features of the "liquid drop" model as well as the features of the "binding energy/nucleon" curve. Students should be able to discuss the significance of this with respect to fission and fusion.

use the Chart of the Nuclides to obtain basic data for a particular isotope, including: its half-life(s), its principal decay modes (if any), its rest mass energy and its dominant thermal cross-sections.

explain the mechanics of alpha, beta and gamma decay as well as the correlation between the half-lives of a given mode and relevant physical parameters (change in spin state, change in parity between parent and daughter).

explain the characteristic energy-dependence of different types of cross-sections, as well as use given cross-sections to estimate reaction rates.

explain the kinematics of elastic scattering, and contrast the average energy loss per collision of neutron scattering with that of charged particle scattering.

describe the characteristics of both fission and fusion.

This is a traditional, lecture-style course that meets three times a week for standard 50 minute lectures.

The following statement indicates which of the following considerations are included in this course: economic, environmental, ethical, political, societal, health and safety, manufacturability, sustainability.

This is essentially an applied physics course, focusing on those topics in modern physics of particular relevance to nuclear engineering. There is no coverage of the supplemental topics (economic, environmental, etc) listed in ABET's professional component.

NE 305 is focused to satisfy the NE educational objectives by providing an education in a fundamental subject (nuclear physics) necessary for a career in nuclear engineering via problem-solving. Students learn to "apply advanced mathematics, science and engineering, including atomic and nuclear physics... to nuclear and radiological processes."