Students in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics (NEEP) can take advantage of many opportunities beyond the classroom to enrich their learning, such as participating in undergraduate research, internships and student organizations. For nuclear engineering senior Shea McCarthy, pursuing extracurricular opportunities helped her decide her next step after graduation.
Early in her engineering education, McCarthy was interested in potentially pursuing graduate studies. Fortunately, the NEEP department excels in providing undergraduates with hands-on opportunities to participate in research with faculty, which helps students better understand what it’s like to work as a researcher.
McCarthy quickly secured a position as an undergraduate research assistant in Professor Adrien Couet’s group, which develops new materials that won’t degrade or corrode in advanced reactor environments. These materials could enable advanced nuclear reactors that use molten salt as a coolant, making them potentially smaller, safer and more economical than current nuclear power plants.
In Couet’s lab, McCarthy assisted NEEP PhD student Kailee Buttice with her research focused on the corrosion rate and mechanisms of molten salts on alloys in nuclear environments. “I really enjoyed working with Kailee. We’re very alike, and it was a great experience,” says McCarthy, who is from Northbrook, Illinois.
McCarthy also worked with Buttice on a major research project that involved regular visits to the National Synchrotron Light Source II at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, to perform cutting-edge in-situ experiments on molten salt using the synchrotron beam. The research is part of a large DOE-funded Energy Frontier Research Center, led by Brookhaven National Laboratory, called Molten Salt in Extreme Environments.
Nuclear engineering senior Shea McCarthy says the NEEP department’s very supportive, collaborative culture has played an important role in her success. Photo: Joel Hallberg.
Then, in summer 2024, McCarthy completed an internship with energy company Constellation to get experience in industry. She worked on core design for boiling water reactors in the company’s nuclear fuels department. It helped that she had taken NE 405: Nuclear Reactor Theory in the semester before starting her internship. “The NE 405 course really helped me wrap my head around many concepts involved in core design, and I was able to directly apply knowledge that I learned in class in my internship,” she says. “I found that I enjoyed doing hands-on design work in the corporate setting.”
During her internship, she worked on a low-enrichment core design project. Specifically, she was tasked with creating a core design that had more “less-enriched” bundles, with the goal of mitigating a problem called moisture carryover. This occurs when there’s too much moisture from the steam, which can cause reactor materials to erode.
McCarthy’s design successfully lowered the moisture carryover throughout the fuel cycle, and the company is using her design as part of a new fuel reload cycle it’s developing. “I’m really grateful to have worked on this project, because it gave me great insight into how to do fuel design and core design and also into the day-to-day operations of a core designer in industry,” she says. “It’s awesome that work I did as an intern can have an impact in the real world.”
The internship was such a positive experience that McCarthy has already accepted a job in Constellation’s core design group after she graduates. Looking back on her undergraduate experience, she’s happy that she took advantage of diverse opportunities outside of her coursework.
“Having these experiences with both academic research and industry really helped me decide what I want to do after graduation, and I’m confident that going into industry is the right path for me,” she says. “I’m also really grateful for my undergrad research experience. I met so many great people through it and it has really supplemented my learning.”
In addition, McCarthy says the NEEP department’s very supportive, collaborative culture has played an important role in her success.
“The nuclear engineering program is small, which I like because it has allowed me to develop a personal connection with many of my professors. The faculty are amazing and it’s clear they genuinely care about every student’s success,” she says. “Also, there’s a tight-knit community among students in the department, where we often study together and hang out together outside of school, and it has been awesome to have these great relationships where everyone is supporting each other.”
Featured image caption: Nuclear engineering senior Shea McCarthy conducts research in Professor Adrien Couet’s lab. Photo: Joel Hallberg.