NC State Nuclear Engineering

10/07/2026

A new study shows that radiophobia—the chronic fear and perceived risk of radiation exposure—may influence health outcomes in people living close to nuclear reactors.

Associate Professor Robert Hayes found that studies that report correlation between cancer and residential proximity to nuclear power plants overlook other factors, such as how chronic stress can affect the body. He proposes that because people expect the radiation to harm them, they are causing real physical symptoms.

One of our main goals is to educate the public to prevent issues like this, especially as we prepare for an expected boom in nuclear research and energy.

09/29/2026

The U.S. Department of Energy recently awarded NC State’s Fusion Plasma Auxiliaries Characterization Laboratory $2 million to continue its research on neutral beam ion sources.

Neutral beam injectors are essential to enabling nuclear fusion in a reactor, with the capability to heat fuel ten times hotter than the sun’s core. The caveat is that their ion sources are inefficient and limited in the amount of ions they can produce.

“The sources on today’s beams are using decades-old technology. They still make ions with hot metal filaments, like an old lightbulb. They wear out and have to be replaced, which caps how many ions you can produce and how long you can run. Our technology uses radio waves instead, with nothing being consumed, so we get more ions and better reliability.” — Assistant Professor Florian Laggner

09/25/2026

Congratulations to Associate Professor Xu Wu! He receive the 2026 American Nuclear Society (ANS) Thermal Hydraulics Division Bal-Raj Sehgal Memorial Award, which recognizes an early-career to a mid-career individual for their exceptional and/or sustained contributions to the thermal-hydraulics field with a particular focus on the application of thermal-hydraulics to nuclear reactor safety.

09/25/2026

Our undergraduate programs are top 25 in the country among public universities!

Biological/Agricultural Engineering: 7th
Chemical Engineering: 10th
Civil Engineering: 14th
Computer Engineering: 12th
Computer Science: 25th
Electrical Engineering: 14th
Industrial Engineering: 8th
Materials Science: 12th
Mechanical Engineering: 14th
Software Engineering: 9th

U.S. News and World Report knows NC State is the place to get an engineering and computer science education.

09/17/2026

“We cannot afford to let the momentum of this moment outrun our capacity to educate and train these students. Sustained investment in faculty, facilities and research funding is not optional, it’s the foundation.”

Department Head Steven Shannon recently told members of the House of Representatives that we are at a crucial point in nuclear power at which we have enthusiastic students and ready-to-use technology, but not the investment in workforce development or universities to capitalize on this.

Learn more about his testimony at http://ncst.at/K30T50ZMH50

09/11/2026

Help us congratulate Associate Professor Xu Wu on receiving the 2026 American Nuclear Society Thermal Hydraulics Division Bal-Raj Sehgal Memorial Award! He is known for innovative research and outstanding contributions that advance predictive capability in computational reactor thermal-hydraulics, as well as technical leadership and exceptional commitment to mentoring future thermal-hydraulics and safety researchers.

The Bal-Raj Sehgal Memorial Award recognizes an early-career to a mid-career individual for their exceptional and/or sustained contributions to the thermal-hydraulics field with a particular focus on the application of thermal-hydraulics to nuclear reactor safety.

09/03/2026

“Jeder ist seines Glückes Schmied” — “Every person is the architect of their own fortune.”

That's how Ph.D. candidate Keanu J. Ammons summed up his experience interning at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany. In his studies here, he designed and constructed radio frequency systems for LUPIN, a reduced-scale ion-source prototype used to study inductively coupled plasma production and evaluate multistrap antenna designs driven by phase-locked RF generators.

He built on this experience to ask a new question: how do isolation transformers alter the electrical behavior of a high-power ion-source circuit? In other words, how can new parts be added to a system without impeding design and operation?

Learn the answer at http://ncst.at/w7hc50ZIXAI

09/01/2026

The Department of Energy tapped NC State to lead three Genesis Mission Projects, but you might be wondering what those are. Here's five fast facts about the projects.

1. The projects use AI to expedite discovery in high-performance computing, cybersecurity and astrophysics.
2. One project is focused on making advance computing hardware more accessible to scientific research.
3. One project is focused on improving the security of AI workflows.
4. One project will discover new insights into the cosmic origins of elements.
5. NC State is partnering on another project using AI to assess reactor safety.

08/27/2026

NC State’s Department of Nuclear Engineering (NE) recently participated in a panel discussion on “Nuclear Technology – Innovation, Leadership and Energy Security” at Energy Summit 26 held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this June.

The summit featured more than 300 speakers and panelists from across the energy ecosystem to discuss the future of energy production, energy storage and responsible energy use. The event drew nearly 12,000 participants from more than 3,000 companies.

The nuclear technology panel was hosted by Ryan Rowlands, Consul General for the United States Consulate in Rio de Janeiro. Steven Shannon, professor and department head of NE, spoke at a panel.

The panelists discussed a wide range of topics including technology, regulation and workforce development, with an emphasis on how to navigate the rapidly growing nuclear sector in Brazil and across the globe.

“The need for more clean, reliable energy is clear, and this summit really opened my eyes to the breadth of technologies working towards this goal,” Shannon said. “It is exciting to see the role that advanced nuclear will play in this growing sector as well as the work being done to accelerate development, deployment and staffing of nuclear power systems in the coming years. NC State is very excited to be part of this.”

08/24/2026