A master's degree in nuclear energy with international influence

Ranging from the fuel cycle to waste treatment, including the design of power plants and their operation, the international master's degree in "Nuclear Energy" meets a wide range of needs of civil nuclear companies and benefits from strong support from the sector's manufacturers.

The objective of this master's degree is to provide high-level foreign and French students with the main knowledge required for the nuclear industry, which produces low-carbon electricity. The master's degree is supported by the University of Paris-Saclay, and co-accredited by the Paris Polytechnic Institute, the University of Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) and the École des Ponts ParisTech.

The "Nuclear Energy" master's program brings together the expertise of five engineering schools: ENSTA Paris, École Polytechnique, CentraleSupélec, Chimie Paristech, and Ecole des Ponts Paristech, as well as the Orsay Faculty of Science and INSTN (a school specializing in low-carbon energy and health technologies).

The master's program, which welcomes some twenty different nationalities each year, is co-directed by Anne-Lise Gloanec, teacher-researcher IP Paris/ENSTA Paris, Gaël Sattonay, professor, Université Paris Saclay/ Faculté des sciences d'Orsay, and Pascal Dannus, professor, Université Paris Saclay/ INSTN.

Un master sur le nucléaire avec de nombreuses visites de terrain

The two M1 tracks, Physics & Engineering and Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, aim to provide a broad training ranging from the scientific and technological aspects essential to the physical and chemical aspects of the nuclear energy field. The two tracks share a common core (76% and 66% in semesters 1 and 2, respectively) and include both fundamental courses underlying the professions related to nuclear energy (nuclear physics, thermodynamics, neutronics, radiation-matter interactions, computer science) and chemistry-oriented courses, for the Chemistry & Chemical Engineering track (separative chemistry, speciation and processes, atomic and molecular spectroscopy, nuclear analysis methods, radiolysis, chemistry of nuclear materials, process engineering) or more physical, for the Physics & Engineering track (thermodynamics, mechanics of continuous media, and fluid mechanics and heat transfer)

These two tracks allow students to acquire all the knowledge necessary to follow one of the five tracks offered in the single M2 of the field:

  1. Nuclear Reactors and Physics Engineering (carried by INSTN): this course focuses on the physics of nuclear reactors. It aims to meet the needs of the nuclear industry, such as those related to the optimized operation of the current fleet, the deployment of Generation III+ reactors (EPR...), and the design of Generation IV nuclear reactors. It also includes the design and operation of experimental reactors as well as the development and interpretation of experiments. This track is only accessible from M1 Physics.
  2. Nuclear Plant and Design (led by ENSTA Paris): this course focuses on the design and construction of nuclear facilities, such as nuclear power plants or fuel processing plants. Safety, project management, civil engineering, and systems and equipment are covered.
  3. Operations (carried by CentraleSupélec): The training here provides the knowledge base for understanding the physical phenomena related to the operation of an installation, particularly from the point of view of safety and security. The objective is to learn how to operate, control and maintain a nuclear installation and in particular a nuclear power plant.
  4. Fuel Cycle (supported by Chimie-ParisTech): this course aims to learn the physical chemistry necessary for the various stages of the nuclear fuel cycle. It is based on the introduction of fundamental research concepts necessary for the development and fine-tuning of processes and the design of new industrial objects
  5. Decommissioning and Waste Management (supported by CentraleSupélec & Ecole des Ponts ParisTech): this training aims to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to carry out a decommissioning and/or dismantling project for old nuclear facilities (reactor, power plant, workshop, laboratory, installation, contaminated site or soil) as well as the knowledge to manage radioactive waste.

The Nuclear Energy master's program benefits from strong and very important support from the industry, in particular EDF (scholarships for students, site visits, simulator access, etc.), but also Framatome, Orano, CEA, ANDRA, IRSN, Assystem, etc.

The courses in this master's program are taught entirely in English. The particularity of this training, in addition to having many speakers from the industrial world (more than 30%), is to benefit from many courses given by industrialists directly on site (CEA Cadarache, CEA Saclay, EDF for sessions on incidental and full scale simulators, ITER, Framatome Maubeuge, IRSN Fontenay aux Roses....). In addition, there are numerous visits to nuclear power plants (Flamanville, Bugey, Tricastin, etc.)  

The courses take place from the beginning of September to mid-April for M1 students and from the beginning of September to mid-March for M2 students. In order to validate their year, all students have to do an internship of at least 10 weeks in M1 starting in April and of at least 20 weeks in M2 starting in March.

The Master is accredited by the International Institute of Nuclear Energy (I2EN) and by the EIT-INNOENERGY. These two accreditations, the quality and the contents treated during this training allow the master to benefit from a very strong employability. Indeed, between 70 and 80% (depending on the year) of the graduates are hired immediately after their training in October, the others continuing most of the time in doctorate or towards a complementary training.

With its first intake in September 2009, the "Nuclear Energy" master's degree already has more than 550 graduates worldwide. In November 2021, the ALUMNI-MNE association was officially created, a group that can be found on LinkedIn.

Applications are possible from mid-November until June for a course start in September.