European Master’s in Nuclear Energy

Your university courses give you the technical foundation. Academics+ extends that experience through entrepreneurship, real nuclear facilities, engineering challenges and additional digital learning.

Across the two years, these experiences give you opportunities to apply what you are learning, examine nuclear energy in its wider technical and societal context, and develop skills beyond your chosen specialisation.

The result is an engineering education that connects theory with the facilities, organisations and decisions shaping nuclear energy in Europe.

Alongside your nuclear engineering studies, you follow an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Journey with Esade Business School.

In Year 1, you complete two learning modules before joining a two-week Summer School at Esade in Barcelona. There, you apply innovation and entrepreneurship methods to your own nuclear Business Case Challenge and explore how an engineering idea can be developed beyond the technical solution.

Your challenge can address areas such as climate, space, safety or hybrid nuclear-renewable energy systems.

The journey continues in Year 2, combining industrial practice with innovation, entrepreneurship and advanced leadership skills. Topics across the journey include lean start-up and design thinking, identifying entrepreneurial opportunities, managing business under uncertainty, business models and intercultural leadership.

Nuclear engineering decisions extend beyond the reactor itself. The programme gives you opportunities to explore their technical, environmental, economic and societal consequences through project-based learning.

At Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), the Nuclear Societal Challenge asks you to analyse the wider impact of decisions such as constructing or closing a nuclear facility. You consider questions including employment, the economy, alternative energy supply and the long-term responsibilities created by these decisions.

New-generation reactors also form part of the programme. Depending on your route, you can work on projects examining the technical, environmental and social considerations involved in planning new reactor technologies, including small modular reactors.

Further challenge-based opportunities can include molten salt technologies, additive manufacturing for nuclear components and materials for low-carbon energy systems.

Some of these projects depend on your study path and available industrial opportunities.

The programme gives you opportunities to experience nuclear engineering at industrial sites, research facilities, laboratories and simulators.

During Year 1 at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), activities can include visits to the ENSA factory, the Santa María de Garoña decommissioning plant and Tecnatom’s full-scope simulator in Vandellòs.

At KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the Nuclear Fuel Cycle course can include visits to facilities such as CLAB, the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory, and the Westinghouse fuel factory in Västerås. Students can also take part in training at the VR-1 research reactor in Prague.

In Year 2, visits on the Paris route can include Flamanville, Tricastin, Marcoule, Melox and La Hague, covering areas such as fuel and energy production, waste recycling and plant operations. At Grenoble INP – UGA, on-site learning can include CEA Cadarache, ITER and EDF’s Material Aging Institute.

*Specific visits and activities vary by year, study path, electives and availability.

You can also develop ideas outside your core university courses.

The Green Seed Journey is a six-month online entrepreneurship competition open to Masters+ students. You develop an idea towards a business concept while competing with peers, interacting with virtual investors and learning from experienced business creation professionals.

The European Master’s in Nuclear Energy also connects entrepreneurship with emerging nuclear technologies. Depending on available opportunities, challenge-based projects can involve start-ups and industrial partners working on areas such as molten salt technologies or advanced manufacturing.

You can also work across disciplinary boundaries. The syllabus includes a shared activity on materials for low-carbon systems that brings nuclear students together with students specialising in renewables and grids.

You can complement your nuclear engineering studies with additional learning in Data Science & AI for Energy.

These courses are designed to develop practical digital skills that can be applied to engineering challenges or used to understand how data and digital technologies support new energy business models.

You can explore modules including:

• AI for Energy Business
• Data Science & AI for Energy Engineers
• Data-Driven Business Decision-Making