Lead Health Physicist, Fusion Radiation & Shielding

Fusion Energy Base; Albuquerque (NM); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Relocation assistance

Flexible time off

End-of-year paid time off (2 weeks)

Leave policies and parental leave

Job summary

Fuse seeks a Lead Health Physicist to head the on-site radiation protection program, directing shielding verification, transport calculations, source-term modeling, and activation analysis. You will set performance criteria, supervise dosimetry programs, and ensure safe operations in a high-neutron/photon field environment.

Relocation assistance and a comprehensive benefits package are available. This role requires in-person work and may include regulatory submissions and design reviews with

Qualifications

• Master's degree in Health Physics, Nuclear Engineering, Radiological Sciences, Physics, or a related field.
• Certification by the American Board of Health Physics (CHP). Fuse will support maintenance of certification status.
• 5+ years of operational health physics experience in environments with non-trivial neutron and photon fields, with at least 2 years in a tritium-handling environment.
• Demonstrated production-grade proficiency with at least one major transport code: MCNP, MCNPX, PHITS, GEANT4, or FLUKA.
• Working knowledge of 10 CFR 835 or 10 CFR 20, DOE-STD-1098, DOE-HDBK-1129, and 20.3 NMAC.
• Hands-on experience with tritium bioassay programs, internal-dose assessment, and ICRP biokinetic models for HTO.
• Experience leading activation analysis and authoring defensible "safe to handle" decisions on activated hardware.

Responsibilities

• Independently verify shielding designs developed by physics and engineering — geometry, source definition, tally choice, variance reduction, and uncertainty.
• Run MCNP, PHITS, or GEANT4 transport calculations for the fusion generators, target chambers, beamlines, diagnostic ports, and shielded penetrations.
• Build and maintain validated source-term models: D-T neutron yield and spectrum, capture and inelastic gammas, bremsstrahlung, and characteristic line emission.
• Perform activation analysis on hardware in the neutron field and produce contact dose-rate vs. cool-down curves that operations can plan around.
• Specify the radiological instrument fleet from first principles. Match detector physics to field characteristics: pulsed vs. continuous response, neutron energy range, photon discrimination, deadtime behavior, and true dose-equivalent response across the spectrum we produce.
• Select personal dosimetry technology appropriate for mixed neutron/photon fields and tritium-intake monitoring.
• Be responsible for the calibration program for high-end instruments to a standard that survives regulator review.
• Be the technical authority on whether hardware and areas are safe to touch or enter. Survey activated and potentially contaminated hardware, evaluate against release criteria, and document the basis.
• Develop and be responsible for activation-based clearance procedures: wait times, dominant nuclides over time, allowable contact handling, and packaging for off-site transfers.
• Conduct radiological surveys before, during, and after non-routine operations.
• Author radiological work permits with credible dose estimates derived from your own field characterization.
• Sit in design reviews with physicists and engineers from the start, not at the end.
• Partner with the RSO: you produce the technical basis; they translate it into licensed scope, procedures, and regulatory submissions.
• Train operators, engineers, and physicists on what their dosimeters and area monitors are actually telling them, including their limitations.

Education

Master's degree in Health Physics, Nuclear Engineering, Radiological Sciences, Physics, or a related field

CHP Certification (American Board of Health Physics)

Tools

MCNP

MCNPX

PHITS

GEANT4

FLUKA

Job description

Fuse seeks a Lead Health Physicist to head the on-site radiation protection program, directing shielding verification, transport calculations, source-term modeling, and activation analysis. You will set performance criteria, supervise dosimetry programs, and ensure safe operations in a high-neutron/photon field environment.

Relocation assistance and a comprehensive benefits package are available. This role requires in-person work and may include regulatory submissions and design reviews with