The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) has some good general information about nuclear careers. The following information is provided from the NEI website:

Job Opportunities

Varied employment opportunities. Employers in nuclear commercial power generation include full-service utility companies, electricity generation companies, and operating companies of nuclear power plants. Related employers include fuel mining, fabrication and enrichment companies; architectural/engineering and construction firms that design and build nuclear power plants; and nuclear waste management facilities. Research positions in nuclear energy are also available at the national laboratories run by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Staffing for the future. Many of today's nuclear experts are part of the generation that pioneered nuclear energy's peacetime use in the 1960s. These professionals are now retiring, and the industry needs qualified applicants to take their place. An estimated 30 percent of the U.S. nuclear workforce will be eligible to retire in the next 5 years. Nuclear energy professionals are more than willing to share their knowledge and experience and pass on their expertise to a new generation. They are proud to be able to play a role in furthering the benefits of this advanced technology.

Substantial shortage of nuclear professionals. In December 2000, the director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Universities Programs said that 400 nuclear specialties positions went vacant that year for lack of qualified applicants. The number of graduate students in nuclear engineering has declined from 1,800 in the late 1970s to 600 in the late 1990s. Undergraduate enrollment in nuclear programs declined from 1,400 in 1989 to 548 in 1999. About 160 students earned bachelor's degrees in nuclear engineering in 2000, a drop of 20 percent from 1999. About 130 students received master's degrees in nuclear engineering that same year, 6 percent less than the previous year.

Palo Verde as an example of the need for nuclear plant employees. Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona—the largest U.S. power plant of any kind, including coal, oil, natural gas and hydro—will lose nearly half of its 1,800-2,000 employees over the next decade to attrition and retirement, said Paul Crawley, Director of Fuel Management at the Arizona Public Service station, in February 2002. In all, the U.S. nuclear industry will need 90,000 new professional and craft workers to fill jobs over the next decade, he added.

The nuclear energy industry's commitment to build new plants. In order for nuclear energy to continue to provide 20 percent of our nation's electricity, the nuclear energy industry has calculated that 50,000 megawatts of new nuclear power plant capability and an additional 10,000 MW of capability from improving existing plants will be required by 2020. Those new plants and plant modifications represent substantial employment opportunities. Already some of this country's largest energy companies are actively collaborating with reactor manufacturers, even investing in future projects, to build new plants in the United States by 2010. These new advanced-design reactors are being developed with today's business environment in mind. They are faster and less expensive to build than previous reactors because they are smaller, modular, standardized, and prefabricated, with simplified safety systems and fuel configuration.

Plant restarts approved and planned. In addition to the prospect of building new plants, even more jobs in nuclear energy will be created by projects to restart shutdown plants. For instance, early in 2001, the Tennessee Valley Authority commissioned a study by a team of experts to explore reactivating Browns Ferry Unit 1, idle since 1985. The two other reactors at the Athens, Alabama plant are operating. The study, completed in March 2002, found that restarting Unit 1 was technically feasible and financially manageable. In May 2002 the TVA Board approved the Browns Ferry 1 restart: "We must balance the responsibility to provide power to meet future needs with our objectives of protecting the environment and continuing the trend of debt reduction. Restarting Unit 1 will provide needed generating capacity without increasing air emissions." TVA presented a five-year restart plan to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in June 2002, scheduling reactor operation for no later than May 2007. At the end of June 2004, TVA said that the restart project was half complete.

A very real energy crisis. The energy industry will be the growth industry of the future. The Department of Energy estimates that the United States will need 44 percent more electricity by 2020. This country's digitally driven economy is expected to increase electricity demand by 30 to 35 percent by 2010. Today, computer and high-tech peripherals are estimated to account for 13 percent of all electricity usage. By 2020, they are expected to account for 25 percent. This is not to say that the Internet as an industry isn't energy efficient in itself or hasn't contributed to the energy efficiency of other industries. But its soaring growth represents a significant energy demand that did not exist before the Internet boom in the mid-1990s. And as the Internet evolves technologically to eventually become the standard telecommunications delivery system for a wide variety of informational, computational, and entertainment, services, its energy requirements can only increase.

Career Advancement

Career paths offer options at nuclear power plants. Many different kinds of engineers as well as other professionals are required to design and build a nuclear power plant and to run it and improve its design once it is built. Engineers working at operating plants may choose to remain in a particular discipline or broaden their field of work beyond their discipline. Positions in plant design, responsible for plant modifications, usually follow traditional engineering disciplines. Positions in plant operations and maintenance tend to be cross-disciplinary, and many require a license issued by the U.S. government.

Nuclear plants provide opportunities to broad expertise. Professionals can broaden their expertise in nuclear energy by (1) engaging in projects and processes undertaken by multi-discipline teams; (2) gaining experience through diversified tasks at a plant; (3) taking a utility-sponsored course on integrated plant knowledge involving all areas of design, operations and maintenance; and (4) getting a Nuclear Operating License and/or a Senior Reactor Operator certification.

Certification and licensing provides professional credentials. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses individuals who operate the controls of a nuclear reactor (Reactor Operators) and supervisors of those who operate the controls (Senior Reactor Operators). Each candidate must take a rigorous examination, which includes a five-hour written examination, an "in-plant walk through" and demonstration of expertise on a simulator. If the candidate passes this examination, the NRC issues a license that allows the individual to operate (or supervise those who operate) the controls of the facility.

Professional development through industry-wide training program. Individuals who meet the experience and education requirements of the power plant owner enroll in a 12- to 16-month licensed operator training program at the company. This program includes instruction and testing in generic fundamentals such as reactor physics, heat transfer, thermodynamics, and fluid flow. In addition, the training program includes many hours of instruction on plant systems, integrated operations, transient and accident analysis, and procedures. Extensive use is made of plant-specific simulators and in-plant under-instruction watchstanding.

Plant-based training programs build transferable skills. The extensive training programs at nuclear power plants enable engineers to broaden and deepen their skills and knowledge in their own discipline. In addition, cross-disciplinary learning is encouraged, and ample opportunity is provided to train in other fields. Finally, opportunities often present themselves for lateral career moves as well. Engineers at nuclear plants have transferred, for instance, to business management of the plant.

Job Security

Nuclear plant longevity-a young industry. In the United States, nuclear plants are licensed to operate for 40 years with the opportunity to renew for an additional 20. The average age of the 103 commercial nuclear power plants operating in this country is only 20 years.

License renewal is expected for virtually all U.S. nuclear power plants. To date, the owners of over two-thirds of the nation's 103 nuclear power plants have either renewed their licenses (39 reactors), filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for license renewal (12 reactors), or officially informed the NRC that they expect to apply for license renewal over the next six years (27 reactors). More are anticipated to follow. Baltimore Gas and Electric (now Constellation Energy) became the first company to seek license renewal in April 1998 when it applied to the NRC for a 20-year extension of its two-unit Calvert Cliffs plant and was the first to receive a renewed license in March 2000. In July 1998, Duke Power's three-unit Oconee Nuclear Station in South Carolina applied for license renewal, and was granted a license renewal in May 2000.

Escalating prices for nuclear plant sales indicate a valued corporate asset. A number of companies have purchased nuclear power plants, with the intention of continuing to operate the plant. These companies realized the competitive potential that nuclear plants have in today's energy market. Each successive sale brought increasing sale prices. Entergy was the first company to purchase a nuclear plant, Pilgrim, in July 1999. AmerGen, a joint venture of Exelon and British Energy, followed with the purchase of Three Mile Island Unit 1, and Clinton, in December 1999. In total, sales of eleven plants have either been closed, are pending, or have been announced.

Building new plants in the United States will extend the nuclear energy industry well beyond our lifetime. Already some of this country's largest energy companies are actively collaborating with reactor manufacturers, even investing in future projects, to build new plants in the United States by 2010. These new advanced-design reactors are being developed with today's business environment in mind. They can be installed faster and cheaper than previous reactors because they are smaller, modular, standardized, and prefabricated, with simplified safety systems and fuel configuration.

Work Environment

Operations engineers monitor the plant in action. Operations engineers spend about 80 percent of their time in the plant and 20 percent in their office. It is a hands on job. They walk around the plant inspecting equipment, doing everything from turning valves to checking transformers outside the plant.

Configuration control engineers design plant improvements. Configuration control engineers are in their offices about 95 percent of the time and 5 percent in the plant. They design and test at their computer, review drawings of the plant in the document room, and run meetings of the design teams.

Work management engineers implement plant improvements. Work management engineers execute disciplined processes to complete plant repairs and improvements. They are in their offices 60 percent of the time, and the rest of their time is spent meeting with maintenance personnel and inspecting the plant to see if the job was completed correctly. Their days are fast paced, as many repairs must be completed in time frames measured in hours.

Equipment reliability engineers analyze performance. Equipment reliability engineers spend half of their time in their offices studying equipment performance reports and specifications to evaluate systems and devise predictive maintenance schedules. The rest of their time is spent in the plant testing equipment, such as putting a probe on a pump to measure vibration, taking oil samples to analyze for the presence of certain metallic compounds as evidence of bearing deterioration, or using thermographic instruments to detect worn parts, which tend to operate at higher temperatures.

Reactor engineers (fuel engineers) focus on the reactor core. Reactor engineers analyze the fuel type and configuration in the core to obtain optimum performance from the fuel and the reactor. They will conduct experiments on new kinds of fuel to ascertain its performance in the reactor. They specify the kind of fuel to be purchased and meet with vendors to evaluate options.

Materials and services engineers identify and procure the best. Materials and services engineers specify purchasing requirements. They meet with vendors, solicit bids, evaluate products and services, manage the supply room to make sure that it contains the right parts in the right quality and quantity at the right price. Much of their job today is accomplished through e-commerce.

Licensed reactor operators rely on intense training and procedures to run the plant safely. Licensed reactor operators spend their days in the control room of the plant, a secured space requiring permission for other plant personnel to enter. The days are quiet, orderly, and formal as set procedures are followed to operate the plant. An array of instrumentation and computer systems enable the licensed reactor operator to monitor operations and initiate actions. No repair work is undertaken until it is cleared with the reactor operator. Operators are continually training to keep skills sharp and knowledge levels high.

Many support services professionals also work at nuclear power plants. A nuclear power plant requires a number of support services to make it run successfully as a business as well as an engineering process. The work environment of these professionals is similar to what it would be in other industries. They include professionals in information technology, business management, accounting, document control, irregularity analysis, loss prevention, fire protection, industrial safety, security, and training.

Plant Safety

Nuclear plants have achieved an outstanding industrial safety record. For years, America's commercial nuclear energy industry has ranked among the safest places to work in the United States. In 2005, nuclear's industrial safety accident rate-which tracks the number of accidents that result in lost work time, restricted work or fatalities-was 0.24 per 200,000 worker-hours. U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics show that it is safer to work at a nuclear power plant than in the manufacturing sector.

Radiation protection at nuclear plants far exceeds regulatory standards. The goal of U.S. nuclear industry practices and federal regulations is to keep total radiation exposures in nuclear power plants as low as reasonably achievable (the ALARA standard). For this reason, the average radiation exposure for employees at a nuclear power plant is 25 times lower than regulated limits. In 1998, for instance, nine of 10 nuclear plant workers received less than one-tenth of the maximum annual radiation dose allowed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Nearly half of all workers received no measurable exposures at all.

Radiation exposures at nuclear plants monitored daily. When employees enter a plant, they pass through a highly sensitive portal monitor to determine what medical or naturally occurring radiation they may have been exposed to before entering the plant. While working in the plant, employees use handheld "friskers" to check themselves for contamination. Every time workers exit a plant, they must also pass through the portal monitor for a final check to assure that workers are not contaminated when they leave the plant. Plant health physics employees immediately examine anyone who sets off a monitor alarm. Interestingly, portal radiation monitors alerted the Environmental Protection Agency to elevated radon levels in houses. After an employee reporting to a plant set off an alarm, the source of contamination was found to be radon in his home.

Exposures in radiation control areas monitored and analyzed electronically at nuclear plants. Employees in radiation control areas are monitored constantly while in the plant. They wear dosimeters in these areas to track total radiation dosage. The dosimeters are processed using computer-controlled data management and record storage. For every employee required to be monitored, energy companies maintain detailed exposure records and report those records annually to the NRC and the employees.

With the shortage of folks to fill nuclear positions, a career in nuclear power is very lucrative for anyone at this time.

I just now found Nuclear Street and it looks like a valuable source of information with good job prospects.  I have a question for those posting at this forum.  Do you think 55 years old is too old to be re-entering the nuclear power industry as a skilled mechanical operator in boilers and non-power steam plant operation?  I completed nuclear power school in the Navy as a machinist mate and served on the Big E in the engine rooms.  I left nuclear power when I got out of the Navy in 1977.  I now have a desire to continue in nuclear power where I left off thirty years ago.  I have successfully completed 24 credit hours of the Nuclear Power Technology program at Bismark State College with a 3.6 gpa.  I'm much better focussed in my studies now than 30 years ago.  I have applied for several mechanical operator jobs, even entry level, at various nuclear power plants with no response.  I have to question if I'm too close to retirement to be a desirable candidate.  I would like your honest opinions if you believe someone in my situation has a good chance or not to get back into a nuke job with my background.  I appreciate in advance your replies.  gparbst   

Gparbst,

 

Thanks for the compliment on Nuclear Street.

 

About your question, no you’re not too close to retirement age to find a job in the nuclear industry. I think the issue is finding the right “type” of job.

 

In my experience (17 years in nuclear power), the mechanical maintenance jobs offered at the different sites are very hard to get…even the entry levels positions. The competition is fierce. I have heard some sites will start you at an entry level position that has nothing to do with mechanical maintenance (like janitorial) with the hopes of moving you up. These jobs are very desirable and I meet several maintenance people at different plants that have been there since construction days.

 

Finding you the right opportunity is the key. I tell some people to try the outage support work first before getting a full time job in the industry. At least, your background security checks would be done and you would have some recent experience that would make your resume more appealing to potential employers. Not to mention, you usually hear about other job opportunities when you are working at the plant.

 

Now the field, somebody with your experience could possible work in the inspection / quality assurance area. That might not be your interest initially but it could possibly open other doors for you in the future. There are different certifications to get in the field through on the job training or different organizations (ANSI, etc.).

 

One of the more important points to help you get a job in this industry is be relentless. Email, call, show up in person (if possible), whatever you have to do to show your desire for that job. Believe it or not, if definitely makes an impression.  

 

Hope this helps!