Introduction to nuclear engineering

This book is an introductory course to the technology of nuclear reactors, it is based on lectures given to students engaged in nuclear engineering curricula. A brief historical account of nuclear power is given in which Three Miles Island and Chernobyl accidents appear to be the main milestones because of their big impacts on the way to apprehend the safety in the design of a reactor for the first and on the public controversy of nuclear energy for the second. All the concepts and knowledge required to understand the design of a reactor and how it operates, are described: radioactivity, nuclear safety, irradiation effects on materials, uranium enrichment, reactor kinetics, fission products poisoning,... This book is made up of 4 parts: 1) nuclear power, 2) types of power nuclear reactors (PWR, BWR and fast reactors), 3) the fuel cycle, and 4) neutronics basics. (A.C.)