Required Courses

Required for both Health Physics and Nuclear Nonproliferation:
RASC-500, 501 and 600

Additional courses required for Nuclear Nonproliferation:
RASC-560, 650, 660, 750, 760 and 998

Additional courses required for Health Physics
RASC-520 (please note that this course is taught in the Fall, every other year), 540, 900, 901, 902, 910

RASC-500 Radiation Science (4)
This course covers the principles of radiation science which are relevant to health physics and nuclear nonproliferation. Lectures will include atomic structure, nuclear structure, radioactivity, interactions of radiation with matter, production of x-rays, sources of radiation, radiation quantities and radiation dosimetry.

RASC-501 Health Physics (3)
This course provides in-depth coverage of the principles of radiation protection and radiation protection guidelines.

RASC-520 Radiation Biology (3)
The focus is on the interactions of ionizing radiations with living matter, including an in-depth discussions of biochemical, cellular, systemic, and population events leading to detectable radiation injury.
This course is taught every other year. Will be offered again Fall 2008

RASC-540 Molecular Basis of Carcinogenesis (3)
An in-depth discussion of the fundamental and the advanced understanding of the mechanisms of carcinogenesis. Various biological, chemical and physical carcinogens will be discussed. Lecture topics also include damage-responsive signal transduction, molecular biology of carcinogen-induced programmed cell death, repair mechanisms, tumor suppression, oncogenes, and molecular diagnosis of inherited disorders.

RASC-560 Introduction to Nuclear Nonproliferation (3)
This is an introductory course and will cover a wide area of nuclear nonproliferation topics, including: Nuclear fission, nuclear weapon types, the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear reactors, the history of nuclear nonproliferation, legal issues, international safeguards, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), nations of proliferation concerns and current nonproliferation regime. Some of these topics will be covered in depth in the other more advanced courses.

RASC-600 Environmental Health Physics (3)
The main focus of this course is on environmental radioactivity and radiation protection. This course will prepare the students to deal with issues associated with the environmental radiation background, radiation accidents, environmental restoration and clean-up.

RASC-650 Radiation Detection (3)
In-depth discussion of the various aspects of radiation detection, including: GM counters, scintillation counters, solid state detectors, gamma ray spectroscopy, neutron detectors and thermoluminescence dosimetery (TLD).

RASC-660 Nuclear Weapons Detection (3)
This course will cover the properties of nuclear and radiological weapons, scenarios for their acquisition and transport, and detection methods and technologies. The course will emphasize nuclear weapons detection topics, such as passive and active detection of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) and Weapon Grade Plutonium (WGP), gamma ray and neutron spectroscopy, remote radiation sensors, cargo monitoring and the monitoring of radiation transients.

RASC-750 Nuclear Weapons Production Cycle (3)
This course will cover components of the nuclear weapons production cycle, commonalities and distinctions between commercial nuclear cycles and weapons cycles, methods for producing weapons materials (plutonium and highly enriched uranium).

RASC-760 Indicators of Nuclear Proliferation (3)
This course will cover indicators of clandestine nuclear weapons testing, signatures and indicators of nuclear proliferation, international inspections and safeguards and monitoring technologies.

RASC-900, 901, 902 Health Physics Internship I, II, III (1-3)
The student gains first-hand working experience in health physics by conducting projects under the guidance of health physicists at Georgetown University and/or other Washington-area institutions.

RASC-910 Environmental Health Physics Internship (3)
The same as Health Physics Internship, but focused on environmental radiation protection.

RASC-998 – Nuclear Nonproliferation Internship (0)
This internship will last approximately 6 months and will be done on- or off-campus. Opportunities for internships will be available at the Department of Energy (DOE), national laboratories, or other facilities in the US or abroad.

ELECTIVES

PHYS-501 Sensors and Sensing (2)
The basics of sensors and instrumentation will be covered, including sensor properties, precision and accuracy, and control and interfacing. The physical principles of electrical, mechanical, optical, magnetic, and chemical sensing will be reviewed. Applications to the measurement of position, velocity, acceleration, force, strain, pressure, flow, electrical and thermal transport, electromagnetic radiation, and temperature will be discussed.

PHYS-502 Advanced characterization methods (2)
Techniques of characterization of materials will be demonstrated and analyzed. Tools for structural characterization, including X-ray, SEM, and TEM, surface analysis, including Auger, LEED, SIMS, and scanning probe microscopies, and chemical analysis, such as mass spectroscopy and optical spectroscopy, will be described.

PHYS-503 Computational Techniques (2)
This module will provide an introduction to the theory and application of the basic techniques of computational science. Topics will be chosen from root-finding, matrix operations, integration of ordinary and partial differential equations (including spectral methods). Students are expected to know how to develop programs in a modern language before taking this course.

PHYS-504 Numerical Simulation Techniques (1.5)
A continuation of Physics 503, including topics chosen from molecular \ dynamics, Monte Carlo techniques, variational methods, density functional theory, computational biology, and parallel computing.

INAF-505 Science and Technology in the Global Arena (3)