Nuclear engineers work to harness the energy released from nuclear reactions. Their field, nuclear engineering, deals with the application of nuclear energy in a variety of settings, including nuclear power plants, submarine propulsion systems, medical diagnostic equipment such as MRI machines, food production, nuclear weapons and radioactive-waste disposal facilities.
While the field of nuclear engineering has branched out into a number of specialized categories, its greatest growth has been in the development of nuclear power plants, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Nuclear power currently provides 13 percent of the world's electricity, according to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). More than 430 nuclear power plants are in service in 31 countries around the world; 100 of them are in the United States.
