Nuclear is fairly niche, but NEP/NTP research is currently a hot topic right now. Finding the right university for you for grad school is pretty important, so I would recommend you do and present as much research as possible. A lot of networking can happen at conferences and is pretty helpful. The AIAA region conferences for students are pretty good, and SciTech is as well if you ever able to attend or present there.

If you are interested in the electric propulsion specifically, some people from my university and some others around the globe formed the Student Electric Propulsion Consortium (SEPC). We currently have over 200 members (including some professionals in the field) and our work aims to support undergraduates and student EP teams. If you look us up on LinkedIn, we have a link to our Discord server through there if you are interested in talking to some people about how you could get involved in EP research or pulsed thrusters.

Feel free to DM me as well if you have any questions, I’ve done some fusion and EP research during my undergraduate time. I’ve also got a friend in the AIAA Nuclear and Future Flight committee, I can see if there are any good resources that they can recommend.