The Department of Nuclear Engineering (DIN) was established in the sixties. Its origin dates back to 1957, when the Enrico Fermi Center for Nuclear Studies (Ce.S.N.E.F.) was founded with the aim of running the first nuclear reactor for academic research and educational purposes in Italy. The reactor operated for about twenty years, starting in november 1959. At the same time a new student curriculum was started which became in 1961 the first master degree specifically devoted to Nuclear Engineering in Italy. The scientific challenge posed by the reactor, an inherently complex system demanding both theoretical and experimental skills, fostered a fertile research collaboration between people with different interests and capabilities, that pursued several scientific subjects and melted them toward common goals.
Nuclear physics, reactor physics, design and control of power plants, detectors and instrumentation, physics and chemistry of materials are among the main topics that were dealt with. Besides permitting nuclear studies and applications, the reactor acted as a catalyst for a number of advanced research fields which exploited and refined nuclear experience and methodology. As an example, the requirements posed by the new experimental challenges boosted an exponential growth of research activities on nuclear electronics and radiation detectors, giving origin to the Italian tradition in electronic instrumentation for physics and engineering.
The reactor was shut down at the expiration of its license, in 1979, but the research activity in the department maintained its interdisciplinary and interactive nature with a strong emphasis on experimental aspects. Presently pursued themes include the design of innovative (intrinsically safe) nuclear power plants; the development of computational methods for reactor physics, risk and safety analysis and transport problems; the design and characterization of innovative radiation detectors and electronic instrumentation; the applications of x- and gamma-rays in fields such as medicine, radiobiology and environmental monitoring; radiation protection and decommissioning of exhausted power plants; the design, synthesis and characterization of micro- and nano-structured materials, radiation chemistry and radiochemistry for a wide range of industrial and biomedical applications. It is therefore a rather unique feature of the department’s expertise to range from the physical foundations of radiation to the variety of its application fields. Despite the broad spectrum of topics, the degree of cross-fertilization between pursued research themes and departmental laboratories is nonetheless high and witnessed by fruitful mutual exchange of researchers, a visible heritage of the common cultural background provided by the reactor. In particular, it must be mentioned that the emphasis on experimental activity not only has been maintained but has increased its role in recent years.
The quality of DIN’s research is at the edge of the international community as witnessed by the number of international research programs and by the presence of researchers in renowned international committees and research collaborations. DIN moreover is the head office and the coordinating partner of a center of excellence entitled by the Italian Ministry of Research. The department is present in several national and international consortia and also includes the Facility for x and gamma ray dosimetry and the Calibration center for gamma and x ray instrumentation that can be considered as internal spin-offs that operate in direct contact with national industries, professionals and medical centers. This situation also has a reflection on the educational attitude. The master degree in Nuclear Engineering aims at bringing up students with a strong background in mathematics and physics and a well developed engineering capability at facing complex problems by working out specific solution strategies. Being comparatively limited in number, students can be involved, as a part of their curriculum, in the Department research activity and can be asked to work out specific aspects to great detail, not to create specialized professionalisms but to teach them how complex and multidisciplinary problems are to be tackled. This educational objective is believed to be valuable at present as well as for the future and is further pursued, after graduation, in the doctoral curriculum. The doctoral curriculum, attended by a significant fraction of our students, is conceived both as a logical conclusion of high level professional training and as the introduction to high quality scientific research.
The department’s mission is to:
- be at the cutting edge in science and technology of radiation, with a special focus on detection, materials, nuclear power plants and system reliability;
- support education of young talented researchers and professionals with a solid scientific background and a truly multi-disciplinary approach.
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