Nick Touran

Nuclear engineer, nuclear communicator, nuclear historian, and author*

*self-published 😎


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Who is Nick?

Nick Touran is a nuclear engineer who joined the field specifically to help fight climate change. He has expertise in nuclear reactor design, development, and history. After training at University of Michigan, he spent over a decade in Seattle working professionally on neutronics analysis, core design, business development, software development, and configuration management. He has a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering and is a licensed professional engineer. He has been active in public education around nuclear since 2006 as the founder and sysadmin of whatisnuclear.com, and by speaking on radio shows (including Science Friday), podcasts, and at local schools, coffee shops, breweries, etc. He also wrote and published an intermediate-level computer book called Digital Superpowers.

My Projects


Public Education about Energy

Read up on nukes.

Visit whatisnuclear.com

Software

I have a few open source projects online.

My github

Work

I enjoy designing nuclear reactors.

My work

Personal Blog

I sometimes write something in the blog.

Read Blog

Photography

I enjoy taking photos.

My Photos

Hobbies

I have lots of hobbies.

Read about them

Research and Work


Technical Skills

Reactor Methods
Diffusion, depletion, stability, kinetics, perturbation theory, nuclear data uncertainty, finance, etc.
System Design
Multiobjective optimization, configuration management, reactor history, project management, non-linear regression
Reactor Codes
ARMI, DIF3D, MC2, REBUS, MCNP
Programming
Python, Django, Javascript, Vue3, git, MPI, HTML, Perl, LaTeX, Jenkins, C/C++, FORTRAN
Computers
Linux, vim, Home Assistant, Apache, graphviz, pandoc, SQL, Dovecot, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, ESP8266, Jekyll, A+ Certified Technician :)

Writing

Appearances


I really enjoy discussing with people about nuclear energy and other things. If you want to invite me for a discussion, etc., contact me.

Hobbies & non-Nuclear Interests


Ham radio
Amateur Extra, digital, SDR, GNURadio, portable & remote operation
Home automation
Contributor to Home-Assistant platform, blogger, creator of infopanel.
Motorcycles
Riding, maintenance
Outdoors
Soccer, skiing, boating, hiking, camping, scuba diving
Reading
History, literature, politics, anything
Electronics
Late 1800s physics, oscilloscopes, vacuum pumps, high voltage
Music
Classic rock, electronic dance, rap, country, bass guitar, MIDI
Photography
Quadcopter photography, regular photography
Nick Touran with
                        dog
Nick in lab coat.