The University of South Carolina Nuclear Engineering Program offers both MS (thesis), ME (non-thesis), and Ph.D. degrees in nuclear engineering.  More than 50 full-time and part-time students are currently matriculating in the program.  On campus students are engaged in research spanning a wide range of topics from advanced nuclear fuels, cladding, and structural materials, to fuel cycle modeling and reactor design. 

All courses are offered both “live” to on campus students as well as on-line to distance education students in the APOGEE program.  For more information, follow the links to the left or contact faculty members listed below, right. 

The program also offers a minor in nuclear engineering for undergraduate students seeking specialized courses and education for pursuing a career in the nuclear industry.  See the Academics link at the right for more information.

Dr. Djamel Kaoumi is a new faculty member in Nuclear Engineering. He joined the Mechanical Engineering department in June 2009. He received a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering (2007) from the Pennsylvania State University where he conducted research on the stability of nanocrystalline alloys under irradiation and resulted in a model of the kinetics of irradiation-induced grain-growth.

Dr Kaoumi’s research topics are in the field of nuclear materials, especially advanced alloys for structural and cladding applications in advanced nuclear systems (Gen-IV fission reactors and the fusion reactor).  Of particular interest to him are advanced ferritic/martensitic steels, and nanostructured oxide-dispersion strengthened (ODS) steels - candidates for first-wall structural application in the fusion system, and for fuel cladding in the fast-breeder reactor). His research interests focus primarily on the effects of irradiation on the microstructure of materials and how these affect their mechanical properties through the use of different materials characterization techniques (including in-situ TEM coupled with charged-particle irradiation, EFTEM, synchrotron XRD).

Dr Kaoumi holds a MS in Nuclear Engineering with a minor in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Florida (2001) where he studied materials for space nuclear propulsion, and a BS in Physics from Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (France).