Course Description

The program in Nuclear Engineering is a Master's. It aims at training professionals to be nuclear engineers so they meet the  country's and Brazilian Army's needs with a solid theoretical-practical foundation and multi-purpose professional training. The program aims at enabling them to act critically and creatively in the nuclear area training them to be highly competitive in the labor market, making them aware of the importance of continuing education, critical thinking, ethics and social responsibility.

At the end of the course, students must be able to:

- apply technological and scientific knowledge in the identification, formulation, posing and resolution of problems,   
- to develop, carry out and manage projects and systems,  
- to integrate and act in multidisciplinary teams,  
- to do technological and scientific research to develop knowledge and new technologies and  
- to build a forward-looking vision mainly to anticipate future technologies.

The Master's in Nuclear Engineering is a two-year, full-time, face-to-face program.  In the first year, students complete the credits and, in the second, they dedicate to research and dissertation.

REQUIREMENTS TO OBTAIN THE MASTER'S DEGREE

Students should earn 27 credits, which necessarily include the following disciplines:

- Introduction to Nuclear Engineering
- Atomic and Nuclear Physics
- Advanced Mathematics Methods
- Radiation Hygiene
- Detection and Nuclear Instrumentation
- Nuclear Laboratory I

In the line of research Nuclear Reactors, Theory of Reactor I and Nuclear Laboratory II are mandatory disciplines. In the line of research Environmental Control, the mandatory discipline is Radiological Protection I;

- To earn grade S (Satisfactory) in his or her dissertation proposal and to defend it orally. The candidate must submit the dissertation proposal by the end of the third term;
- The student enrolled in the master's degree must take two Language Examinations and be approved in both of them: a Portuguese language test and an English language test;
- To obtain final Cumulative Grade Point Average equal to or higher than 3.0 (three);
- Complete the course in a period up to twenty-four (24) months at the most. Exceptionally, civilian students can have a six-month extension;
- Earn grade S (satisfactory) on the dissertation, presented in writing to the Examining Bank, and defend it in an oral examination.

HISTORY

The first postgraduate LATO SENSU course in Nuclear Engineering in Brazil, named Specialization Course in Nuclear Engineering, was created at IME in 1958 to supply the initial demand for specialized professionals by an expanding labor market, after the creation of the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN) in 1956, which led to the country's entry into the field of nuclear energy..

At the end of this one-year full time course, the student had to prepare and defend a monograph to receive the degree. The aim was to train qualified engineers to absorb and develop new technology to meet the existing and future needs of specialized professionals of the time. Several specialists, trained in this Institute, could work in universities, research institutions, regulatory bodies, and in the industrial sector of the country.

A few years after the beginning of the LATO SENSU program, there were changes in the initial academic structure of the program. In 1969, the continuous search for curriculum updating and the concern to meet curricular guidelines and market demands of the nuclear system led to the transformation of the former specialization course to the current MSc in Nuclear Engineering at IME. 

Today, two lines of research, Environmental Control and Nuclear Reactors, lie at the core of the research activities that support the training in Nuclear Engineering. These research lines study measurements of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation as well as facilities where materials containing natural or artificial radionuclides are processed, making them compatible with national interests.

EMPHASIS

- Nuclear Facilities