Look at the job listings for nuclear engineers in private, public, government sectors. Look at what kind of degrees they want the candidates to have. Does anything stand out? NONE of them are nuclear engineering degrees. Nuclear engineering deals with the maximums (extremes) of mechanical engineering. The difference is that once people see the word "nuclear" they are clueless as to what it is you actually know yet amazingly pigeonhole you as not being the right person for the job. And quite honestly, it's a lot like someone getting a bachelor's in quantum optics...why would someone do that and severely restrict themselves when they should get a degree in general physics and focus it towards quantum optics. Get a degree in mechanical engineering and then specialize in nuclear engineering with your thesis, projects, and portfolio. Tough Love Warning if you don't have a portfolio of work or some sort of professional and verifiable work history gearing your degrees towards nuclear engineering then you're probably screwed and you're wasting your time.

Do you want to work at ITER, the NIF, or Los Alamos? Then you should steer towards a chemical engineering grad degree. The new head of the NIF at Lawrence Livermore? Chemical engineer. People who get nuclear engineering degrees often are interested in the field but have no idea what the field entails or how it operates. If you want to help develop new reactors, then you should be a nuclear physicist because they are the ones who create while nuclear engineers are the ones who carry out orders from nuclear physicists.

Unless you plan on moving to China, France, or India and living there for the rest of your life; then you shouldn't get a degree in nuclear engineering. Get a minor in nuclear engineering and get a masters in nuclear physics.

In other words, if you want to build preexisting designs under the supervision of a team consisting of nuclear physicists, mechanical & civil engineers, and a chemical engineer; the nuclear physics is your major. If you want to be in charge, then you need to pick one of the four majors I just mentioned.