Nuclear Engineering (Bill Garland), Nuclear Engineering home url: www.nuceng.ca [Translate to: French]

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Hello, hello! Wot's this, then?

This is a site for students and others interested in Nuclear Engineering, built when I was Professor in the Department of Engineering Physics, McMaster University. I am retired now but still maintain the site. Suggestions and comments are welcome. Contact me. My short bio (pdf 9kb).

Looking for general nuclear info, courses, links, technical reports, etc.? Check out the links below. This site contains complete lecture notes, worked problems and actual lecture recordings (screen and audio capture). Check it out and enjoy!

Personal Commentary (Bill Garland): EmPOWERment: Energy for human betterment: I got into nuclear many years ago precisely because of my concern for the environment. Many of us have been plugging away for years doing the best we can to promote and implement the use of nuclear. I have been concerned for many years about pollution and the many other footprints we make. But we need to acknowledge the good progress that has been made over the years. We do see all too frequently, a frenzy over the fear of the moment where some fear mongers feed into peoples' emotions to create (along with media's help) unbalanced perceptions. Read more ...

Research Information

• Please note: I am retired from McMaster University and cannot take on any new graduate students at this time. This page is retained for archival purposes.
• Past Research Interests (Nuclear Reactor Systems Analysis)
• Graduate Students
• Publications
• Light Water Properties Download (fast, accurate curve fits to the 1984 NRC/NBS steam tables)
• Heavy Water Properties

Course Information

• Nuclear Courses (including complete lecture notes, worked problems and actual lecture recordings (screen and audio capture) that I was involved in directly in the past. These are NOT web pages for the current course offerings but do contain archival information that students and others might find useful.
  • Engineering Physics 4D3/6D3 (Nuclear Reactor Analysis)
  • UNENE UN0802 (off-campus, modular version of EP4D3/6D3) (Nuclear Reactor Analysis)
  • Engineering Physics 4L3 (Nuclear Reactor Thermalhydraulics 1985/86 Term I)
  • Engineering Physics 4U4 (Nuclear, Computer Systems, Optics and Solid State Laboratories)
  • Engineering Physics 4P3/6P3 (Nuclear Power Plant Systems and Operation)
  • UNENE Mathematics and Modelling Refresher - 2009 version
  • Engineering Physics 712 (Advanced Nuclear Reactor Analysis) - under construction
  • Engineering Physics 714 (Nuclear Reactor Safety Design)
  • Engineering Physics 716 (Nuclear Reactor Heat Transport System Design)
  • Engineering Physics 718 (Reactor Heat Transport System Simulation and Analysis)
  • UNENE UN0804 (off-campus, modular version of 716 and 718 combined) (Nuclear Reactor Heat Transport System Design and Analysis)
  • Science for Nuclear Energy and Radiation - a comprehensive course for Grade School and High School Science Teachers
  • An Introduction to the CANDU Nuclear Energy Conversion System by A.A. Harms, McMaster University, 1975.
  • McMaster Institute for Energy Studies (MIES)
    • Thermalhydraulics for CANDU Reactors - an intensive short course for scientists and engineers, McMaster University, 1982 & 1984
• Non-nuclear Courses that I was involved in directly:
  • Engineering Physics 3W4 - Term II (Fourier Transforms)
  • Engineering 2C3 (Electricity, Thermophysics and Energy) - for Civil Engineers
  • Engineering Physics 2H4 / Physics 2H4 - Introduction to Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics
  • Engineering 2M4 (Electrical Science) - for Mechanical Engineers
• Other Engineering Physics Undergraduate and Graduate courses
• UNENE Joint Master's of Engineering Degree courses
• Teaching matters - helpful general information on teaching and learning for the student and the educator
• See the Downloads page for engineering software and compilers, etc.
• Essential concepts that every Nuclear Engineer should know.
• Computing tools - some suggestions.
• See also the MIT Nuclear Engineering open courseware (offsite link)
• Well, what do you know! This site was named to OEDb's Top 100 Open Courseware Projects list, which is available here -- http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-open-courseware-projects.

Reference Information

• Nuclear Facts and Opinions - Did you know ...
• Nuclear Acronyms
• Nuclear Outreach - on communicating to the public, the media and to the anti-nukes
• Risk - keeping it in perspective
• Nuclear Safety: Become a Nuclear Safety Expert (pdf 1.1Mb) by Herschel Specter, January 2019. The first three pages of this report are sufficient to put nuclear safety in perspective.
• Radiation information
• Safeguards and Waste Management - On the issue of safeguarding nuclear reactors and long-lived nuclear waste into the future.
• Costs of Nuclear Power Plants and related matters.
• Nuclear Fission Fuel is Inexhaustible - Nuclear fission energy is as inexhaustible as those energies usually termed "renewable", such as hydro, wind, solar, and biomass. (Archival copy pdf 270kb)
• Plants and Events
  • Three Mile Island - Dickinson College's Three Mile Island web site is made up of a variety of documents related to the nuclear emergency that occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in March of 1979. In particular, the report The 3 R's; Radiation, Risk, and Reason (pdf 1.9Mb) found on the Research page is excellent. [Archival copy pdf 1.9Mb]
  • Chernobyl information
  • Fukushima Daiichi Reactors - March 11, 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan
  • The electrical blackout of August, 2003
  • McMaster Nuclear Reactor Power Excursion January 1994 - see meeting presentation M39.
• The Medical Isotope Crisis
• Climate change - facts and opinions
• Virus infection dynamics - an aside not directly related to nulear but it does offer an opportunity to explore how to think about risky phenomena.
• Interesting talks
  • Overview of Nuclear Reactors and their Uses - a presentation given by Jeremy Whitlock, AECL to McMaster students in 1995 (with permission) (pdf 466kb)
  • Seminar: Medical Radioisotope Production: Where Next? (pdf 5.0Mb) by Dr. Eleodor Nichita of UOIT, CNS Toronto Branch seminar, 2009-06-29.
  • Seminar: The CANDU Program and AECL by Ben Rouben, AECL, Slides (pdf 2.9Mb), Recorded seminar (exe 55.6Mb) on 2007.01.11 at McMaster University. Listen to Ben's review of CANDU history, AECL's role, and current opportunities. Focused on reactor physics. Well worth the rather large download (sorry about that but it is the best we candu).
  • Seminar: Searching for a Sustainable Energy Future (pdf 51kb) by Dr. Patrick Moore (bio, pdf 84kb), co-founder of Greenpeace, currently Chair and Chief Scientist of Greenspirit Strategies. This is dynamite stuff. Given at McMaster March 29, 2006. You can listen to essentially the same seminar here.
  • UNENE news item in the McMaster Daily News 2006 (pdf version 35kb)
• My reading list - collection of odds and sods, most of which provide food for thought
• Humour - Take a break from work.

Nuclear Educational Initiatives in Canada

• UNENE, the University Network of Excellence in Nuclear Engineering, is offering a inter-university Master's degree program.
• CANTEACH - CANDU technical information, an industry, university, CNS initiative that began in January 2000 with the mandate to produce technical educational material on CANDU.
• CNS Conferences and Courses - check here for the latest news on upcoming conferences and courses sponsored by the Canadian Nuclear Society (Student Conference, Annual Conference, Nuclear Simulation Symposium, ...).
  • Canadian Nuclear Society Universities Committee - a committee devoted to assist in the coordination the activities of Canadian universities with nuclear programs, including the CNS Student conferences.
• The Essential CANDU - a new CANDU textbook.

Nuclear Links and Downloads

• Introductory Nuclear Educational Material - for high school and grade school teachers.
  • How and why is CANDU designed the way it is - an introduction. Powerpoint presentation (ppt 9.0Mb), Text (pdf 800kb). Listen to the presentation (with audio) as a web-based slide show (click on the slideshow icon in the lower right corner) or download the presentation with audio included (a huge ppt file 46Mb).
• NuclearCanada.ca - Looking for information related to the overall Canadian Nuclear Enterprise and international links? The links formerly posted on this site have been moved to the portal www.nuclearcanada.ca..
  Information found there includes:
  • Nuclear News
  • Careers page - links to full-time and summer career and job information, including at our own reactor - Jobs, jobs, jobs!!! Now contains articles relating to supply and demand.
  • Company links.
  • Who's Who - Find out where to study Nuclear Science and Engineering Research and Education, who is doing what and where.
  • Nuclear Courses offered in Canada - a convenient list of and links to all nuclear related courses offered in Canada.
  • Links to Discussion groups.
  • Technical documents - books, reports, journals, educational material.
• Downloads (Computer Codes) Related to the Nuclear Industry.
• Nuclear at McMaster University
  • Eng Phy Home Page for information on degree and diploma programs.
  • Nuclear Engineering Page for an overview of the department's nuclear program.
  • McMaster Nuclear Reactor (tours available) - You haven't lived until you have seen the light!

Several links from this web site are to files in portable document format (pdf) format. You can use Adobe's Acrobat Reader to browse pdf documents on-line, print the document and download the files. If you haven't installed Adobe's Acrobat Reader already, click here to download it for free. (Adobe and Acrobat Reader are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated).

Comments? Contact me

Visit other web sites built by Bill Garland

"Those who hear not the music, think the dancers mad." - author unknown