The course, developed within the international collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, illustrates the models of energy production and use, with particular reference to nuclear energy and its interaction and integration with renewable energy sources and with those from fossil fuels, in the context of possible energy strategies envisaged by national and international scenarios. The course illustrates in detail the analysis criteria of an energy production system, identifying its advantages and limitations, and the problems associated with both international energy geopolitics and national planning. In particular, the engineering activities necessary to carry out a national planning through the identification of energy resources and the energy production systems of a country, and the execution of quantitative and qualitative assessments on the comparisons between energy production systems within a country and between different countries.

The educational objectives are:
- learn the basic analysis criteria of an energy production system with particular regard to contexts that include the use of nuclear energy;
- understand the differences between the various energy resources and the different energy production systems;
- compare the sustainability of different energy production systems and the strategies of energy production.

The course is supplemented by seminars and technical visits to companies operating in the energy sector. The course complements other similar courses present in the Engineering Degree Courses of the University of Pisa by providing training on the topics explored in the classroom lessons, during seminars and in the final thesis