Nuclear Reactor Safety
Nuclear reactor safety, taught at MIT, examines the complete reactor system rather than isolated components, covering the balance of plant, support systems, and the interdependencies among them that determine overall plant safety. The course draws on multiple engineering disciplines at once, reflecting how real safety problems in nuclear plants get solved. Students work with simulators modeled on the Seabrook and Pilgrim nuclear power stations, using them to study plant behavior under normal and abnormal conditions in a setting meant to approximate actual reactor operations as closely as possible outside the plant itself. Materials include MIT OpenCourseWare lecture notes and assignments covering regulatory oversight and systems interdependency. The course suits students who already have some background in nuclear engineering and want to see how individual subsystems combine into a single safety case for an operating reactor.