UCBNE Home Page

UCB Nuclear Engineering Department News

Latest News

  • Prof. Per F. Peterson recently spoke for the O'Reilly Radar Global Issues Webcast Series, discussing Nuclear Energy: Future Directions.
  • We are pleased to announce that Raluca Scarlat's poster, which presented work by UC Berkeley students on Deep Burn TRISO transmutation fuels, received a 3rd-place Fuel Cycle R&D Excellent Achievement award today at the annual DOE Fuel Cycle R&D meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Congratulations to Raluca and our students working on deep burn technology.
  • NE Grad Denia Djokic joins NE Student Delegation to Washington
  • 2009 Advanced Summer School of Radioactive Waste Disposal with Social-Scientific Literacy (PAGES)

    Background, Motivation and Objective

    In the past two years, Department of Nuclear Engineering and Management, University of Tokyo and Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley have been carrying out collaboration
    for developing advanced educational programs for nuclear engineering. The collaboration, called GoNERI, has been funded by the Global Center of Excellence (G-COE) program of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences (JSPS).

    As one of the core parts of GoNERI program, special emphasis is placed on integrating nuclear science and engineering with social science. Among many other areas in the nuclear field, we recognize the particular relevance of social-scientific approaches to the nuclear fuel cycle and radioactive waste disposal. It is imperative that the new generation of nuclear engineers understand societal aspects of nuclear technologies sufficiently to serve the public good. However, as faculty members and students in nuclear science and engineering, we do not yet have sufficient command of the fundamentals of the social sciences (such as their domain, concepts, terminology, methodology, etc.), which limits us in collaborating with social scientists. This must be corrected.

    With such understanding, under the GoNERI program, efforts have been made to develop an innovative education program by integrating nuclear engineering and social sciences, including a series of bi-weekly seminars and field trips to Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), New Mexico, Toyo-Cho and Rokkasho-Mura, Japan.

    The objective of such prospective educational program is to provide students with an awareness of social science perspectives and the capability to put them to work in improving society's ability to make difficult and long-term decisions. We will do this by establishing a systematically integrated program for nuclear engineering graduate students. This summer school is planned and organized as an important milestone toward the goal.

  • NEW Berkeley Nuclear Research Center at Nuclear Engineering Department
  • Nobel Prize- winning scientist Dr. Daniel Kammen investigates visionary, technology-driven solutions to future mega-city challenges such as food production, water access, energy, waste management and transportation.

    Go to the ECOPOLIS website

    • The Department of Nuclear Engineering Celebrated its 50th Anniversary

    Go to the Anniversary Web Site
     (includes recorded talks.)

    In 2008, The Department of Nuclear Engineering at UCB was celebrating its 50th anniversary. The focus of the anniversary celebration was a special Colloquium on September 19-20, 2008 which showcased the history of our Department and its role in the development of Nuclear Power, as well as highlighting specific research contributions.

    With the re-vitalization of nuclear power, this Colloquium provided a timely forum for both reflecting on the past and to looking forward in a scientific exchange, in addition to providing a venue for inspiring future nuclear scientists and engineers. The Department of Nuclear Engineering was established in 1958 and has provided programs in Nuclear Engineering to prepare students for a lifetime of technical achievement and professional leadership in academia, government, the national laboratories, and industry.