CES9AI

Nuclear industry: context - technologies – risks

ECTS Credits : 4  

 

Duration: 36 hours

Semester : S9

Person(s) in charge :

Silvère BARRAT, Professor, silvere.barrat@mines-nancy.univ-lorraine.fr

Emmanuel PLAUT, Professor,  emmanuel.plaut@mines-nancy.univ-lorraine.fr


keywords : 

 

Prerequisites :

Objectives:

 

In view of the energy issues that will continue to increase in the next ten years to come, the civil nuclear industry, chosen by France in the mid-twentieth century, is constantly evolving, and is also the subject of heated debate. The objective of this course is to make students aware of the technical, economic and societal challenges that nuclear energy presents, to give the scientific foundations on which the nuclear industry is based and its foreseeable evolution (from the exploitation of uranium deposits to the production of energy in nuclear plants and waste management), and, in an unbiased way, to help form an enlightened opinion on the pertinence of this industry as a viable solution, in the more or less long term, to future energy needs. This course is further supported with the expertise of the Energy-Material-Geoengineering departments, visits to a nuclear energy plant and a waste storage laboratory (The Meuse/Haute Marne Underground Research Laboratory [in Bure]) and lectures given by specialists in the nuclear industry.


Program and contents:


• Nuclear energy from the bottom up: mining, minerals, resources and supply

• Risks and civil engineering

• Material in a nuclear plant– follow-up and maintenance

• Energy policies – current situation – development perspectives

• Fuel: manufacturing, assembly and cycles

• Basic nuclear physics geared toward energy production (nuclear plant)

• Design, workings and energy production management of nuclear plants

• Visit of a nuclear plant

• New materials for future industries

• Visit and lectures at The Meuse/Haute Marne Underground Research Laboratory (in Bure)

- Lectures by on-site professionals (from treating spent fuel to waste storage

- Aspects of material for storage

• Lectures followed by adversarial debates with students and industry professionals

• Feedback from students

Abilities: 

levels

Description and operational verbs

Know 

 

Understand 

 

Apply 

 

Analyse

 

Summarize

 

Assess

 

Assessments:

  • Written Test
  • Continuous Control
  • Oral report
  • Project
  • Written Report