MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering

NSE's Professor Zach Hartwig is on a mission to recreate the limitless power of the sun on earth — the hardest problem he could find. "There's something very attractive to me about the magnitude of the fusion challenge," he says. "We have to cross multiple frontiers of physics and engineering if we're going to get fusion to work."
https://curiositymission.org/stories/cfs/

Three MIT teams took five top awards in the 2026 NASA RASC-AL Competition, including first and second place overall! Congratulations to the 30+ students from eight MIT departments and Wellesley College on their exceptional achievements designing critical elements for the Moon Base and future missions to Mars.

ECLIPSE: The Exploration-Class Lunar Integrated Power SystEm team won first place overall and first in its theme category, lunar surface power.

MELIORA: The communications and navigation constellation team won second place overall and first in its theme category on Mars communications, position navigation and timing, which included a strategy for proving the design at the Moon.

CHEESEBURGER: A campaign to mine and process lunar regolith into oxygen, metals and bricks, won first in its theme category, lunar technology demonstrations.

Read the full story:
https://nse.mit.edu/interdisciplinary-mit-teams-win-top-honors

Departments:
MIT AeroAstro, MIT System Design and Management, MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT EECS, MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE), MIT Technology and Policy Program, the MIT Sloan School of Management, and MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences

Advisors:
Olivier "Oli" de Weck, Kerri Cahoy, Jeffrey Hoffman, George L., Koroush Shirvan

MIT's Fission Energy Systems (22.06) class visited Seabrook Nuclear Power Station with Professor Jacopo Buongiorno to wrap up the Spring semester. A memorable experience! Photos: Courtesy of NextEra.

Congratulations to our 47 students graduating this year!
https://nse.mit.edu/commencement-2026/

During her MIT Energy Initiative UROP, Lucy Greenup studied how radiation interacts with nuclear materials, enabling the development of better failure detection systems for nuclear fusion reactors.

The energy of the future: Lucy Greenup As a part of her MITEI Energy UROP, Lucy Greenup studied how radiation interacts with nuclear materials, enabling the development of better failure detection...

Poster and oral presentations at NSE's 2026 Research Expo showcased the most recent research by graduate students from across the Department.
https://nse.mit.edu/2026-nse-research-expo/

Meet Brandy Baker, NSE's Director of Academic Programs, recently honored with an Enduring Impact Award by the Office of Graduate Education for making sustained contributions that have meaningfully shaped the graduate community.
https://nse.mit.edu/brandy-baker-director-of-academic-programs-at-nse-recognized-for-enduring-impact/

For nuclear to be considered as a viable clean energy source, it has to be competitively priced and economical to produce. Lauren Fortier, a doctoral student in MIT's Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, is helping the cause by facilitating remote operation and autonomous control of nuclear plants.

MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering Lauren Fortier: In pursuit of autonomous nuclear plant operations

A quantum sensor made from nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds, created by MIT researchers, measures tiny signals at levels that would be impossible using classical sensors alone.

Multitasking quantum sensors can measure several properties at once Using quantum entanglement, MIT researchers found a way to simultaneously measure multiple physical quantities in a room temperature quantum sensor. The approach could have applications in biomedical sensing, materials characterization, and more.

An MIT CANES symposium which discussed strengths and gaps of US nuclear energy program identified workforce and financing as challenges to scaling the technology rapidly and efficiently to deliver new fleet of nuclear power plants.
https://nse.mit.edu/can-the-united-states-do-nuclear-alone/