Program Overview

Introduction to the Radiation Health Physics Graduate Major

The Radiation Health Physics Graduate Major offers Master of Health Physics, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Radiation Health Physics. This program is designed to prepare students for careers involved with the many beneficial applications of nuclear energy, radiation, and radioactive materials.

Program Description

The nuclear engineering and radiation health physics professions are essential to society's well-being, enabling significant public benefits through energy security, national defense, medical health, and industrial competitiveness. The program provides particular attention to the application of scientific principles to the safe design and operation of nuclear installations. Emphasis is also placed on system safety and thermal hydraulic testing, high-performance computational methods development, nuclear instrumentation, nuclear systems and materials, radiation protection, reactor analysis, nuclear power economics, and the regulation of nuclear operations.

Areas of Concentration

The program offers various areas of concentration, including:

• Application of nuclear techniques
• Arms control technology
• Nuclear instrumentation and applications
• Nuclear medicine
• Nuclear power generation
• Nuclear reactor engineering
• Nuclear systems design and modeling
• Nuclear waste management
• Numerical methods for reactor analysis
• Radiation shielding
• Radioisotope production
• Space nuclear power
• Thermal hydraulics

Research and Teaching Opportunities

Competitive fellowships and research and teaching assistantships are available to incoming graduate students. The U.S. Department of Energy and National Academy for Nuclear Training support a number of fellowship programs each year. Oregon State University is one of eight participating universities in the U.S. where students may attend graduate school on the Nuclear Engineering, Health Physics, and Applied Health Physics fellowships sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Facilities and Resources

World-class facilities are available for the instructional and research programs of the department, housed in the OSU Radiation Center. These facilities include:

• A TRIGA Mark II nuclear reactor
• The Advanced Thermal Hydraulic Research Laboratory
• The APEX nuclear safety scaled testing facility
• Laboratories specially designed to accommodate radiation and the use of radioactive materials

Degree Options

The School of Nuclear Science and Engineering offers graduate work leading toward the following degrees:

• Master of Engineering
• Master of Science
• Doctor of Philosophy in Nuclear Engineering
• Master of Science
• Master of Health Physics
• Doctor of Philosophy in Radiation Health Physics
• Master of Medical Physics
• Master of Science
• Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Physics

Major Code

The Major Code for this program is 3270.