Nuclear Criticality Safety Engineer
About the role
Own the Criticality Safety Basis for Advanced Nuclear Fuel Take ownership of criticality safety for the fuel lifecycle of the KRONOS MMR, a High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR) fueled by ceramic matrix TRISO fuel. This role goes beyond performing individual calculations. You’ll establish and defend the criticality safety basis for out-of-core fuel operations spanning fresh and irradiated fuel handling, transportation, storage, qualification materials, test specimens, irradiation support, PIE activities, and material disposition. Reporting jointly to the Reactor Fuel Design Manager and Reactor Design Manager, you’ll work across fuel design, performance, transportation, and qualification programs to ensure inherently safe configurations and rigorous nuclear quality standards.
Why This Opportunity Stands Out Own criticality safety analysis across handling, transportation, storage, and qualification activities. Work directly with HALEU, TRISO fuel, graphite and ceramic moderation, and HTGR fuel configurations. Influence both fuel design and reactor design through a highly cross-functional role. Establish safety limits and controls for credible accident and upset scenarios. Apply advanced criticality methods using MCNP, SCALE/KENO, benchmark validation, bias and uncertainty, and sensitivity/similarity methods. Build qualification-grade safety documentation under rigorous NRC and nuclear QA requirements.
Responsibilities
- Execute criticality safety analyses for fresh and irradiated fuel movement, including reactor-site transportation and inter-facility transfers.
- Define and validate geometric and moderation constraints for fresh-fuel and spent-fuel storage configurations.
- Model credible accident scenarios, including inadvertent moderation and geometric reconfiguration during handling events.
- Establish