2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses School of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering Graduate major in Nuclear Engineering
Nuclear Engineering Science II
- Academic unit or major
- Graduate major in Nuclear Engineering
- Instructor(s)
- Hiroaki Tsutsui / Hiroshi Akatsuka / Hiroshi Sagara / Koji Maeda / Masayuki Takeuchi / Haruo Sato / Morihiro Mihara / Hideaki Osawa / Kazami Yamamoto / Kenji Nishihara / Tetsuo Nishihara / Hiroyuki Yoshida / Chiaki Kato / Yoshinori Haga / Koji Kaneko
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 7-8 Fri (North 2-671)
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- NCL.F452
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 3-4Q
- Syllabus updated
- Sep 10, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
We deliver lecture of nuclear fuel cycle engineering and nuclear science research, as an interdisciplinary area of physics, chemistry, geology and sociology in nuclear engineering, comprehensively to beginners in this field. Researchers at development front will deliver lectures from relating universities and JAEA.
Course description and aims
Students become able to understand and explain the basic matters of comprehensive theory about energy environment, nuclear fuel cycle, the deep geological science, and nuclear science research. Students become able to have and explain knowledge about nuclear fuel cycle engineering to non-specialists, keeping in mind that this is one of the interdisciplinary area of physics, chemistry, earth science, engineering, and sociology of nuclear power.
Student learning outcomes
実務経験と講義内容との関連 (又は実践的教育内容)
Some researchers at the forefront of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency will give lectures.
Keywords
comprehensive energy environment, nuclear fuel cycle, control of radioactive and nuclear waste, Accelerator and basic nuclear science
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
World-class researchers will deliver lectures, based on their most excellent research. This lecture utilizes a remote lecture system with some other universities, and therefore, 15 lectures are given at 16:30-18:00. Please note that the times when the University is unable to attend live classes will be video-delivered.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Introduction of nuclear reactor engineering and nuclear fuel cycle (H. Akatsuka) |
Students shall be able to explain nuclear reactor engineering, nuclear fuel cycle, fast breeder reactors and the radioactive wastes. |
| Class 2 | Nuclear fuel engineering (K. Maeda) |
Students become able to understand the characteristics of nuclear material, fundamentals of nuclear fuel engineering and fuel manufacturing process. |
| Class 3 | Chemistry and engineering of reprocessing process (M. Takeuchi) |
Students become able to understand the significance of reprocessing, the basic theory of solvent extraction, the basic distribution chemistry and behavior of actinides and fission products. They become able to understand the safety of the PUREX system engineering based on past examples of accidents. |
| Class 4 | Fundamentals of Nuclear Security (H. Sagara) |
Ensuring nuclear safety, nuclear security, and safeguards/non-proliferation (the 3S) is a necessary condition for the use of nuclear energy. This lecture will provide an overview of the 3S, focusing particularly on nuclear security and outlining its fundamentals. |
| Class 5 | Species of radioactive waste and low-level radioactive waste (H. Satp) |
Radioactive waste includes not only high-level radioactive waste requiring geological disposal, but also a large amount of low-level radioactive waste. This low-level waste ranges from materials with relatively high radioactivity levels to radioactive isotopes and nuclear fuel materials generated during the decommissioning of nuclear power plants and in industrial and medical applications. This section outlines the overall picture and the treatment and disposal of low-level waste. |
| Class 6 | Theory of disposal system (M. Mihara) |
Students become able to understand the science of disposal system and the methodology of the safety assessment. |
| Class 7 | Technology of geological environment survey (H. Ohsawa) |
Students become able to understand the natural phenomena and the latest research results to be considered in the safety assessment of geological disposal. |
| Class 8 | Safety evaluation technology of geological disposal (M. Mihara) |
Students become able to understand the method of the safety assessment of geological disposal, etc., to understand the case-studies of evaluation. |
| Class 9 | Basics of accelerators and J-PARC (K. Yamamoto) |
Students shall understand accelerator engineering, its basic theory and state-of-the-art accelerator facilities |
| Class 10 | Separation and conversion technology using accelerator (K. Nishihara) |
Students shall be able to explain the current status of R & D on separation and conversion technology using accelerators aimed at reducing the volume of radioactive waste. |
| Class 11 | HTGR research and development (T. Nishihara) |
Students shall be able to explain the current status of the development of a new type of reactor, the high temperature gas reactor, and the development of heat utilization technology. |
| Class 12 | Research on nuclear safety improvement (H. Yoshida) |
Students shall understand the current status of research and development on improving safety of light water reactors. |
| Class 13 | Basic research on nuclear power (C. Kato) |
Students shall understand and explain the current status of nuclear basic research that supports the use of nuclear power. |
| Class 14 | Advanced Nuclear Science Research (Y. Haga) |
Students shall be able to understand and explain a) the current status of actinoid science and b) the current status of advanced materials science as the current status of nuclear science research. |
| Class 15 | Neutron and synchrotron radiation research (K. Kaneko) |
Students shall understand and explain the current status of research on the use of neutron beams and synchrotron radiation beams. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Nothing special
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Materials will be distributed at the time of lectures.
Evaluation methods and criteria
【Academic assessment】 by term-end reports and short tests assigned by instructors
Related courses
- NCL.C401 ： Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering
- NCL.C402 ： Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal Engineering
- NCL.C403 ： Nuclear Chemical Engineering
- NCL.N407 ： Nuclear Safety Engineering
- NCL.F451 ： Nuclear Engineering Science I
Prerequisites
Nothing special