Principal Engineer, Nuclear Analysis

TerraPower LLC.•Bellevue, WA

13h•$153,862 - $205,149

About The Position

TerraPower is seeking a highly motivated Principal Nuclear Analysis Engineer to perform core design and analysis activities for advanced nuclear reactors. The work includes calculating and optimizing fuel management, power distributions, reactivity coefficients, control rod worth, shutdown margin, sensitivity, and uncertainties, while meeting applicable functional and quality requirements. The engineer will design and analyze systems to solve complex problems and develop and execute sensitivity studies to assess modeling assumptions and methods, including meshing, physics coupling, transport options, cross-section preparation, fission-product treatment, and spatial kinetics. The role also includes documenting analysis results and nuclear design solutions, and maintaining nuclear-application software through implementation of enhancement requests and bug fixes. The position requires professional conduct within published regulatory guidelines and is subject to qualification requirements in accordance with ANSI/ANS 3.1. Travel is 0–10%.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Nuclear Engineering or a related discipline from an accredited university; higher education may count toward the experience requirement.
At least 7 years of direct experience with proven nuclear engineering skills.
Knowledge of basic nuclear reactor design concepts sufficient to support the engineering team in understanding systems being designed and code being reviewed.
Experience in core design and analysis, including fuel management optimization, reactivity coefficients, shielding and activation, control rod worth, and uncertainty analysis.
Strong computational expertise.
Strong MCNP experience.
Good working knowledge of nuclear and/or general numerical methods, such as partial differential equations, dynamics, deterministic and stochastic particle transport, isotopic depletion, perturbation theory, nuclear data, and kinetics.
Excellent verbal and communication skills.
Ability and professionalism to work within published regulatory guidelines for nuclear reactor design.
Meet the applicable minimum education and experience criteria under ANSI/ANS 3.1, including relevant nuclear industry experience where required.
High degree of trust and integrity, open communication, respect, and a desire to foster teamwork.

Nice To Haves

Experience with nuclear engineering software such as DIF3D, MC2, PARTISN, RELAP, SCALE, PARCS, APA, CASMO/SIMULATE, or DRAGON.
Experience in transient analysis, thermal hydraulics, fuel performance, or related areas.
Fast reactor experience or experience with a Core Operating Limits Report or Technical Specifications.
Ability to perform professional-quality software development for nuclear applications.
Strong programming skills in any language.
Experience working in NQA-1 environments.

Responsibilities

Perform core design and analysis for advanced nuclear reactors, including calculation and optimization of fuel management, power distributions, reactivity coefficients, control rod worth, shutdown margin, sensitivity, and uncertainties.
Design and analyze new systems to solve complex problems.
Design and execute sensitivity studies to evaluate modeling assumptions and their validity, including meshing, physics coupling, transport options, cross-section preparation, fission-product treatment, and spatial kinetics.
Help develop corrected methods where analysis reveals they are necessary.
Establish and maintain documentation of analysis results and nuclear design solutions.
Maintain software by working with the team to implement defined enhancement requests and bug fixes.
Work within published regulatory guidelines for nuclear reactor design.