In April 1958 a graduate program leading to the M.S. degree in Nuclear Engineering was approved as a department in the College of Engineering beginning in September 1958,1 A Ph.D. program was approved in January 1961, and an undergraduate major for the Nuclear Engineering B.S. was established in 1974.2, 3 The program for Nuclear Engineering officially became a department in 1986.4 The Nuclear Reactor Laboratory for the program was established in 1959, and the TRIGA Mark II Nuclear Reactor was completed and made available for training and research with radioactive isotopes in 1960.5, 6 Other facilities added include a nuclear metallurgy laboratory, a radiochemistry and nuclear instrumentation laboratory, several subcritical natural uranium assemblies, two neutron generators, and a direct energy conversion laboratory.7 More recent research resources that have been developed include a supercomputer, a dense plasma focus fusion-related device for high temperature plasma studies, and an ultrahigh-vacuum laboratory for plasma-material interaction studies.8
1. Board of Trustees Transactions, 49th Report, April 17, 1958, p. 1194.
2. Board of Trustees Transactions, 51st Report, January 28, 1961, p.308.
3. Board of Trustees Transactions, 57th Report, March 20, 1974, p. 515.
4. Board of Trustees Transactions, 63rd Report, March 13, 1986, pp. 504-505.
5. Board of Trustees Transactions, 50th Report,April 14, 1959, p. 396.
6. Nuclear Reactor Laboratory, Logbook no. 1, August 13, 1960 to December 13, 1960, p. 11.
7. 1976-78 Graduate Programs, University of Illinois, p. 116.
8. 1988-90 Graduate Programs, University of Illinois, p. 136.
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