Principal Reactor Fuel Engineer

About the role

Location: Oak Ridge, TN (Relocation Offered). Type: Direct Hire. Work Model: Hybrid.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain the KRONOS Fuel Qualification Statistics and Uncertainty Quantification Plan, including confidence requirements, acceptance probabilities, decision rules, and concurrence points.
• Establish defensible sample sizes and population definitions for kernels, TRISO particles, ceramic pellets, manufacturing lots, irradiation specimens, PIE populations, and safety-test specimens.
• Develop methods for estimating defect, particle-failure, fuel-failure, and fission-product-release fractions, including zero-failure and censored datasets.
• Establish uncertainty budgets covering characterization, irradiation conditions, PIE measurements, material properties, safety testing, and derived qualification parameters.
• Define statistical requirements for model calibration and validation, bias evaluation, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty propagation, applicability limits, and experimental comparison.
• Develop design-of-experiments, process-capability, variability, sampling, and acceptance methods supporting repeatable production-intent fuel.
• Evaluate data exclusions, outliers, missing data, anomalous observations, and extrapolations.
• Author clear statistical conclusions and uncertainty statements supporting fuel qualification and licensing documentation.

Requirements

• Advanced degree in Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Reliability Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, Materials Science, or a closely related quantitative discipline.
• 5+ years supporting nuclear fuel, materials qualification, reliability, manufacturing qualification, model validation, or another safety-critical technical program.
• Expertise in design of experiments, acceptance sampling, uncertainty propagation, reliability methods, statistical inference, and model calibration or validation.
• Experience developing statistical approaches before data collection and working with sparse, censored, zero-failure, or heterogeneous datasets.
• Proficiency with controlled statistical-computing workflows and rigorous documentation of calculations, software, data transformations, assumptions, and independent reviews.
• Strong technical writing and communication skills, including the ability to translate statistical limitations into clear engineering, safety, and regulatory conclusions.
• Direct experience with TRISO, advanced nuclear fuel, or high-temperature ceramic qualification.
• Experience estimating low-probability defect or failure fractions at regulator-relevant confidence levels.
• Familiarity with ASME NQA-1, nuclear software QA, configuration control, and regulator-facing technical reports.
• Experience integrating manufacturing process capability, experimental uncertainty, and model-form uncertainty into qualification decisions.

Pay

Compensation: $255,000.

Schedule

Work Model: Hybrid.

Benefits

Eligible employees receive health and welfare benefits coverage options including medical, dental, vision, spending accounts, life insurance, voluntary plans, and participation in a 401(k) plan.