Post Bachelor RA - Gamma Spectroscopy

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory • Richland, WA

2d • Onsite

About The Position

At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.
Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Earth and Biological Sciences, Physical and Computational Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus.
The Energy and Environment Directorate delivers science and technology solutions for the nation’s biggest energy and environmental challenges. Our more than 1,700 staff support the Department of Energy (DOE), delivering on key DOE mission areas including: modernizing our nation’s power grid to maintain a reliable, affordable, secure, and resilient electricity delivery infrastructure; research, development, validation, and effective utilization of renewable energy and efficiency technologies that improve the affordability, reliability, resiliency, and security of the American energy system; and resolving complex issues in nuclear science, energy, and environmental management.
The Nuclear Sciences Division, part of the Energy and Environment Directorate, delivers science and technology innovations for the environment, energy, and national security. At a time when complex challenges are emerging on many fronts, we address some of the most challenging national and international nuclear issues. This includes providing technological solutions that protect the public health and safety around nuclear facilities, developing durable new materials for extreme nuclear environments, innovating new nuclear processes for the safety and security of the nation, and delivering new approaches for accelerating environmental cleanup of nuclear sites. The division’s capabilities and efforts are focused on environmental management of nuclear sites, nuclear regulatory processes, national nuclear security, and advancing nuclear energy.
The Nuclear Chemistry & Engineering Group supports Hanford Site cleanup, river corridor protection, nuclear materials stewardship, non-proliferation missions, the nuclear fuel life cycle, national security missions, and energy production, and is engaged in expanding the beneficial use of nuclear materials and radionuclides. Through high-quality fundamental and applied science and strong academic collaborations, we are fostering a renewed focus on radiochemistry and irradiated materials research for providing solutions in nuclear nonproliferation, environmental cleanup and protection, advanced nuclear energy, and for use in medicine and industry.
Our team is seeking a recent college graduate to support our Radiation Detection capability. The selected candidate will assist with radiation spectroscopy counting operations in PNNL’s Radiochemical Processing Laboratory. The job will focus on use and improvement to portable gamma ray detection systems, developing algorithms and software for automated analysis of the advanced radio-emission spectroscopy systems, and studying the detection sensitivity to complex mixed fission/activation product samples. The candidate should have a working knowledge or be prepared to learn radiation transport, C++/Python, and CERN’s ROOT & GEANT4 data analysis & simulation frameworks; these skills will be leveraged to test developed analysis tools against complex bulk fission product spectra. The candidate will be expected to publish fundamental nuclear data and support open-source development of advanced radio-emission spectroscopy instrumentation & methods. The candidate may also assist with and learn radiochemistry methods, including sample digestions, chemical separations, and sample prep for gross alpha/beta counting, liquid scintillation counting, etc.

Requirements

• Candidates must have received a Bachelor’s degree within the past 24 months or within the next 8 months from an accredited college or university.
• Candidate will be trained and must perform to Radiation Worker standards (Radiological Worker II), as well as building and project procedures for managing radioactive and hazardous materials.
• The candidate will be working with radioactive materials and chemicals in laboratories that are in radiological controlled areas, including radiation areas, radioactive material areas, and contamination areas.
• This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a federal security clearance.
• U.S. Citizenship
• Applicants selected will be subject to a Federal background investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified matter in accordance with 10 CFR 710, Appendix B.
• All Security Clearance positions are Testing Designated Positions, which means that the applicant selected for hire is subject to pre-employment drug testing, and post-employment random drug testing.
• applicants must be able to demonstrate non-use of illegal drugs, including marijuana, for the 12 consecutive months preceding completion of the requisite Questionnaire for National Security Positions (QNSP).

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in physics, nuclear engineering, computer science, or related field
• Experience with Geant4 radiation transport code
• Experience using HPGe detectors and analyzing their data
• Experience with ROOT and/or C++ coding

Responsibilities

• assist with radiation spectroscopy counting operations in PNNL’s Radiochemical Processing Laboratory
• use and improvement to portable gamma ray detection systems
• developing algorithms and software for automated analysis of the advanced radio-emission spectroscopy systems
• studying the detection sensitivity to complex mixed fission/activation product samples
• publish fundamental nuclear data and support open-source development of advanced radio-emission spectroscopy instrumentation & methods
• assist with and learn radiochemistry methods, including sample digestions, chemical separations, and sample prep for gross alpha/beta counting, liquid scintillation counting, etc.

Benefits

• Employees and their families are offered medical insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, robust telehealth care options, several mental health benefits, free wellness coaching, health savings account, flexible spending accounts, basic life insurance, disability insurance, employee assistance program, business travel insurance, tuition assistance, relocation, backup childcare, legal benefits, supplemental parental bonding leave, surrogacy and adoption assistance, and fertility support.
• Employees are automatically enrolled in our company-funded pension plan and may enroll in our 401 (k) savings plan with company match.
• Employees may accrue up to 120 vacation hours per year and may receive ten paid holidays per year.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees