Nuclear engineering

Hi guys, This definitely sounds strange but I have been looking at nuclear engineering as an alternative degree path. It seems interesting, I’ve looked into the materials science courses with nuclear at imperial or Lancaster and they have a maths and chem or physics req. I am currently doing maths bio chem and predicted A*A*A and have been doing med experience but wanted to keep options open since I found it interesting. Is there any courses or experience to actually understand what I would be learning from that degree?? Or people similar to me who switched from med to engineering (I’m not 100% on this).

Hi Icy-starship,
I'm a Nuclear engineering PhD student, but I did the 4 year Chemical Engineering MEng course at Lancaster too.
There were coursemates in my year studying chemical engineering at Lancaster that had switched over from medicine after deciding it wasn't for them. The way engineering works at Lancaster is that everyone does a general first year where you learn the basics of maths and each disipline such as Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Nuclear Engineering. Then from second year onwards you pick your disipline and continue to specialise in it. So you could switch to engineering from medicine and then specialise in nuclear from second year onwards if you so wish.
The nuclear course contains aspects of each disipline with added nuclear context such as Power Engineering which discusses the electrical infrastructure needed to convert the power from the reactor in to electricity that goes to the national grid. Another example is nuclear materials science looking at the different materials and their specialised properties that are required for different aspects of nuclear power generation, from the uranium fuel to the stainless steel used for reactor components. The course also goes over the history of the nuclear industry and where it's heading in the future and the various applications that radioactive materials are used for like it's use in nuclear medicine.
I've linked the webpage for the nuclear engineering course below, it has an overview of the module topics the course covers so hopefully that gives you a better description of what the course would be like and to help you decide if it's something you'd want to look more in to.
Link: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/nuclear-engineering-beng-hons-h820/2026/#nuclear-engineering-year-2-core-modules-3
If you have any other questions don't hesitate to get in touch and all the best for deciding what you want to do next with your studies.
Paddy
Lancaster Student Ambassador