An Internet Resource Guide for Undergraduate Nuclear Engineers

Table of Contents
Introduction3
What are the Guides assumptions?...............................................................3 Who should read the Guide?............................................................3 What is in the Guide?.3 How is the Guide organized?..........................................................................3 Tips for using the Guide.....3

Sophomores...4
Penn State College of Engineering...5 Penn State Nuclear Homepage.6 Navy Nuclear7

Juniors......8
Quick Resources..........9-10 Kaeri.....9 Physical Measurement Library.....10 Research Resources......11-14 American Nuclear Society.........11-12 Fusion Science and Technology....11 Nuclear Science and Engineering Journal.....11 Nuclear Technology..11 Energy Citation Index.....13 Catalog of US Government Resources.....14

Introduction
What are the Guides assumptions?
This Internet Resource Guide (IRG) makes several assumptions. One is that you are an Engineering student at Penn State. The Guide also assumes that you are at least a little interested in choosing Nuclear Engineering as your major.

Who should read this Guide?

The IRG for Nuclear Engineering is a guide for two different types of students. Sophomores, you will find this guide useful if youre thinking about choosing Nuclear Engineering as a major. Juniors entering the major can use this guide for quick resources and research.

What is in the Guide?

The Guide contains resources for both sophomores and juniors. If you are a sophomore, you will mostly be utilizing the resources that will help you choose your major. As a junior, you will most likely be familiar with the sources that are included for sophomores. Instead, you will need sites to use as quick references while doing homework, research papers, or even in class discussions. The guide also has great resources for you to use for research projects and papers.

How is the Guide organized?

The IRG is first split up into two major categories: Sophomores and Juniors. In the category for sophomores includes three resources for engineering students choosing their major. The section for juniors has two sub-categories. One is includes quick reference sites and the other is for research.

Tips for using the Guide

If you are a junior, you should already know about the content included in the sophomore section. However, you may still want to use it to quickly access information that you will need throughout your studies at Penn State. Also, make sure you utilize the tips given for each resource in order to utilize each site to their full potential.

Sophomores
A large part of a Penn State engineering students sophomore year is the entrance into their specific major. Some know what they want to do entering into their freshmen year, while others arent so certain. But by the end of your sophomore year you should have an idea about what major you want to take. This part of the IRG will give you information on the nuclear engineering major at Penn State and will also get you a head start in the major.

Sophomores
Penn State College of Engineering
URL: www.engr.psu.edu
What is this website used for? The homepage for engineering at Penn State has a wealth of information for all students in an engineering major. On the front page you can see they post news and upcoming events relevant to PSU students in engineering majors. You can also see on the right side they have quick links for academic programs. By clicking on Current Students and then Undergraduate, you can quickly access information pertinent to you. As sophomores, you wont have an advisor specific to the major you are planning on entering. Because of this the Engineering Advising Center is very important. From this page you can find your advisor and schedule an appointment. The Majors, Minors, and Certificates section is also important. If you arent sure what you want to major in, you can get a description of each one to decide what sounds most appealing. In each description they also include links to the academic degree plan for the major. Because all engineering majors start out as common engineering, you will most likely need only a handful of extra classes to complete a minor. You can find information about each engineering major available. Lastly and perhaps most importantly is the section for scholarships and financial aid. It is often hard to find scholarships as sophomores since you havent chosen a specific major yet. Thats why this section is so important. You should visit the scholarship site very often. Once you chose a major, you will use your majors website to get financial aid. Tips for using this site Use the top links to quickly navigate each page. The links do not take you to another page but scrolls quickly to that part. You can also use the quick links on the right to get to other useful websites.

Sophomores
Penn States Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering Homepage
URL: www.mne.psu.edu
What is this website used for? The Penn States homepage for Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering is a website for prospective and current students to go to get information about the mechanical and nuclear majors. There are links for department directories, research and facilities that are handy for current students. On the home page they have news in the two fields as well as an events calendar for those who like to be involved. There is a tab for prospective students. If you click on this tab it takes you to a basic overview. To know more about nuclear engineering as a major, you should click on Undergraduates on the left then on What is NucE? This provides a lot of information on the major including prospective jobs upon graduation. It also lists the important nuclear societies here at Penn State. They have several other great links at the bottom that will take you to usual websites for this major. The current students section has a large amount of helpful resources for students enrolled in nuclear or mechanical engineering. For instance, they have quick links that include Angel, eLion, Engineering Library, and the PSNES Mentoring Program. This part of the website also has archives of course syllabi and an option to search for NucE courses. Another great resource to utilize is under the Undergraduate category. If you click on Curriculum, you will see a bunch of academic degree plans come up. This shows the different majors that are included in ME and NucE. Most students do not know that you can take concurrent majors until its too late. So if you are thinking about doing this there is an academic plan for this as well as one for NucE. They also have a link to the different minors you can try for as well. There is also a page that includes lots of helpful forms that you may need throughout your college career.

Sophomores
Navy Careers for Nuclear Engineers
URL: http://www.navy.com/careers/nuclear-energy.html
What is the website for? The United States Navy offers great opportunities for students in engineering. While you may not be thinking about what you want to do when you graduate with an engineering degree, you should at least be aware of what the Navy can offer you while you are in school. In several junior level classes, the Navy gives a presentation on the NUPOC program. Sophomores should also be aware of this program because they pay you to basically go to class and get god grades. So if any of these careers interest you, you should definitely look into signing up as a sophomore. That would mean extra money in your pocket! Besides the money, a career in the Navy has other pluses. They have five different job opportunities that will satisfy everyones appetites. The Navy could also pay for you to go to Grad School. The website goes into depth about each of the five careers. They include a job description, specific responsibilities, work environment, training and advancement, education opportunities, qualifications, and opportunities after the Navy. After you read through each of the career choices and decide you might want to get a career in the Navy, they have a tool on the right that helps you find a recruiter in your area. It might be beneficial to talk to the recruiter in State College since you will be spending most of your time at school. Tips for using this site Each job description has a helpful video if you click on the picture at the top. There is also a link to the Navy Nuclear Facebook on the right hand side, you can go there to talk to people who have been through the program

Juniors
As juniors two different types of resources will be very helpful for you. The first are websites that can be used for quick references. The second type includes resources that can be used for research papers and projects or just for knowledge in a certain area of nuclear engineering that interests you. All of the following websites will be useful throughout the rest of your college career and beyond.

Juniors Quick Resources

Kaeri
URL: http://atom.kaeri.re.kr/
What is this website for? The Korea Atomic Energy Resource Institute or Kaeri is a website that contains a table of nuclides, cross section plotter, table of -rays, electron and photon attention information, and atomic molecular and optical database systems. While all these are great resources, you will use the cross section plotter a lot in your nuclear classes. It is fairly easy to use. Once you click on Cross Section Plotter you will be prompted to select a library. Once you click on a library, elements and their isotopes will come up. Select the one you want and then select the cross section you need to plot. If you want to plot another type of cross section you can select as many as you want. Then at the top left corner you will see PLOT. When you click on this your cross section plot will come up. Tips for using the site If you want to plot several different isotopes on one plot, click the Up link near the top, next to Navigate. Once you plot your cross section(s), you can adjust the x and y axis by changing the numbers at the bottom. You can use the min and max options to zoom in or out.

Juniors Quick Resources

Physical Measurement Laboratory
URL: http://www.nist.gov/pml/
What is this website used for? This site is a great source for quick numerical data. They have atomic weights for elements 1 through 111, and isotopic compositions or abundances are given when appropriate. You can also get cross section data. Stoppingpower and range tables for electrons, protons, and helium ions can also be found. All this stuff can be accessed if you hover over Products/Services and then click on Physical Reference Data. All this information will be useful when doing homework and you need to look up data quickly. You will use this a lot to look up the weights and compositions of isotopes. Instead of flipping through hundreds of chapters and appendices, you can just type in your element symbol and all the properties you need to solve a homework problem come right up! They also have a great half-life table that is better than most of the ones in textbooks. Tips for using this site Type in any atomic symbol (ex. U) and click Get Data to get the weights and compositions for the most common isotopes.

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Juniors Reference Resources

American Nuclear Society
URL: World: http://www.new.ans.org/
What is the website used for? The American Nuclear Society is a nonprofit organization thats purpose is to promote the awareness and understanding of the application of nuclear science and technology. As a junior in the major, you should definitely become a member. A basic membership costs only $28 and comes with a lot of added benefits including scholarship opportunities. You can access tons of publications, journals, and magazines. There are some things nonmembers can access under the Public Information tab. A great tool to utilize is the glossary. It has tons of technical terms and even abbreviations so you wont miss a beat in class. On the ANS website they publish three different journals, Fusion Science and Technology, Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Nuclear Technology. The Fusion Science and Technology journal has the latest information on fusion plasma physics and plasma engineering, fusion plasma enabling science and technology, fusion nuclear technology and material science, fusion applications, fusion design and system studies. It is published eight times a year, so you can count on it containing current and relevant information. This journal could be used in your NucE 310W class since you will be writing several research papers. The Nuclear Science and Engineering journal is issued nine times a year. It is a great research journal that you will be able to use in classes throughout your junior year and after. Some students take NucE 451 junior year. In this class you use a computer code called MCNP in your final project. In Volume 166 of this journal you will find an article on this code that will help you with this project. The last journal ANS publishes is Nuclear Technology. It covers a wide variety of topics including health physics, reactor technology, and waste management. Junior year students are required to take a reactor design class. This journal will come in handy for your research projects in this class. You will also pick some electives in the nuclear major, you might end up choosing health physics or waste management or another elective that this journal covers. As you can see this journal has a wealth of information that you will want to have access to.

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Tips for using this site To access the glossary, go to the Public Information tab and then click on Resources. Unless you are a member you will only be able to access the abstracts of the journal articles.

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Juniors Research Resources

Energy Citation Database
URL: http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/
What is this site for? Using the Energy Citations Database (ECD), you can access over 2 million science research citations, including nuclear topics. You can do a basic search or you can use the fielded search option. Here you can really narrow done a search to get the specific topic you are interested in. The only problem with this site is that while they have a lot of resources, they range from 1943 to the present. So you have to be careful and make sure you are choosing current articles. Tips for using this site To get current information just click on Pub Date to sort the articles by date or go to the Sort Results drop down menu and click Publication date. When you are using the fielded search to search for a specific subject, click on the grey button that says select. o Then to select a topic click on the green box that says explore, this will move that specific topic to the middle column. Now you can either add that topic, the more general one or narrow it down even more by clicking the green box that says add beside the topic you want. And finally click submit.

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Juniors Research Resources

Catalog of US Government Publications
URL: http://catalog.gpo.gov
What is this website used for? Juniors in nuclear engineering will find that the Catalog of US Government Publications can be very useful. You will use this site to search for resources for research papers and projects throughout the rest of your college career. For instance, in NucE 310W you will write a paper on breeder reactors. If you type this into the search, a lot of results come up organized by publication date. The second choice is an article on advance liquid metal reactors. This article has information on this type of reactor that you could use in your project. It also has information about proliferation risks which is also a topic you will discuss in NucE 310W. Tips for using this site If you are just in the researching phase of your paper or project you can add articles to your bookshelf to quickly reference later o To do this just check the box beside the article(s) you find interesting or relevant and then click Add to Bookshelf

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