Subsurface Nuclear Technology

Catalog Description

• This course will cover the fundamentals of subsurface nuclear technology and its applications to 1) infer the porosity, the density, elemental composition, and fluid saturation of subsurface media; 2) identify fluid movement in reservoirs, 3) determine fluid characteristics in complex fluid regimes, and 4) perform borehole diagnostics, using neutron and photon measurement and simulation techniques. Application of computational methods will also be covered.

Course Prerequisites

• Graduate standing
• NE 155
• NE 162

Prerequisite knowledge and/or skills

• Fundamentals of nuclear physics, interaction of radiation with matter
• introduction to nuclear engineering computational methods, preferably Monte Carlo or at least basic statistical methods, 
• knowledge of one programming language

Textbook(s) and/or other required material

• No text required

Topics covered

1. Overview of Subsurface Measurements
2. Nuclear physics for subsurface measurements
3. Gamma-ray techniques
4. Neutron techniques
5. Spectroscopic techniques
6. Fluid flow measurements: An overview
7. Nuclear modeling
8. Non-nuclear subsurface measurements: An overview
9. A possible field trip to view subsurface measurements in progress

Class schedule

• Three hours of lecture per week