Silicon carbide（SiC） semiconductor material has many outstanding advantages such as wide band gap， large crystal atom departure threshold energy and high electron hole migration rate. The SiC based nuclear radiation detector has the advantages of high temperature resistance， high radiation resistance， small size and fast response. The continuous improvements of high quality， large size SiC crystal materials growth， epitaxial growth technology and device preparation technologis have greatly promoted the development of SiC based nuclear radiation detectors. This paper starts with the principle and performance evaluation index of SiC nuclear radiation detector， analyzes the interaction mode and main performance index of SiC material with various radiation particles during radiation detection， and the relationship between main performance index and SiC crystal defects， etc. Based on the physical properties of SiC crystal， the preparation and epitaxial growth methods of SiC crystal substrate at the detector level are summarized and compared. The latest research progress of SiC charged particle detector， neutron detector and X/γ detector are introduced， and the challenges in the development of SiC based nuclear radiation detector are analyzed， which provide a reference for improving the performance of SiC based nuclear radiation detector.