Nuclear Criticality Safety Engineer

Protingent; Oak Ridge (TN); On-site; USD 145,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Protingent is seeking a Lead Nuclear Criticality Safety Engineer in Oak Ridge, TN to lead criticality analyses for transport, storage, and handling of nuclear materials, ensuring subcriticality and regulatory compliance.

The role requires 5+ years of leadership in nuclear criticality safety, proficiency with MCNP or SCALE/KENO, and HALEU materials experience, with cross-functional coordination across design, transport, and QA teams.

Qualifications

• Requires a degree in Nuclear Engineering or Physics.
• 5+ years of nuclear criticality safety experience.
• Demonstrated ability to establish code validation and subcritical margins.
• Proficiency with MCNP and SCALE/KENO.
• Working knowledge of ANSI/ANS-8 standards and ASME NQA-1 compliance.

Responsibilities

• Execute comprehensive criticality safety analyses for the movement of fresh and irradiated fuel.
• Define and validate the geometric and moderation constraints for on-site storage of fuel.
• Model and analyze potential out-of-pile criticality accident scenarios.
• Collaborate with fuel design, performance, and transportation teams to maintain safe configurations.
• Anchor all evaluations and reports within configuration control per ASME NQA-1 and NRC standards.
• Define and approve the criticality safety basis for HALEU-bearing materials and related processes.

Skills

Criticality Safety Leadership

Validated Computational Methods

Nuclear QA & Software Controls

ASME NQA-1 & NRC Standards

Education

Degree in Nuclear Engineering or Physics

Tools

MCNP

SCALE/KENO

Job description

Position Title: Lead Nuclear Criticality Safety Engineer

Position Description: Protingent Staffing has an exciting direct hire Lead Nuclear Criticality Safety Engineer opportunity.

Job Responsibilities

• Handling & Transport Analysis: Execute comprehensive criticality safety analyses for the movement of fresh and irradiated fuel, including transport to reactor sites and inter-facility transfers.
• Storage Configuration Validation: Define and validate the geometric and moderation constraints for the on-site storage of both fresh fuel blocks and spent fuel arrays, ensuring strict adherence to subcriticality limits.
• Accident Scenario Modeling: Identify, model, and analyze potential out-of-pile criticality accident scenarios (e.g., inadvertent moderation, geometric reconfiguration during handling drops) to establish robust preventive and mitigative controls.
• Cross-Functional Safety Integration: Work with the fuel design, performance, and transportation teams to ensure all fuel handling equipment and transport casks maintain inherently safe geometric configurations.
• Configuration Management: Anchor all criticality safety evaluations, validation reports, and operational limit documentation within configuration control, ensuring strict compliance with ASME NQA-1 and NRC regulatory standards.
• Qualification Campaign Criticality Safety: Define and approve the criticality safety basis for HALEU-bearing qualification materials, fuel lots, test specimens, fabrication steps, packaging, inter-facility shipments, irradiation support, PIE handling, and waste or residue dispositions.

Job Qualifications

• Education: Degree in Nuclear Engineering, Physics, or a related highly technical discipline.
• Criticality Safety Leadership: 5+ years of nuclear criticality safety experience, including authorship and independent defense of evaluations for fissile-material processing, laboratories, storage, or transportation.
• Validated Computational Methods: Demonstrated ability to establish code validation, benchmark applicability, calculational bias and uncertainty, and subcritical margins using recognized critical experiments and sensitivity or similarity methods.
• Proficiency with industry-standard criticality safety analysis codes (e.g., MCNP, SCALE/KENO).
• Standards & Controls: Working knowledge of applicable ANSI/ANS-8 standards, double-contingency principles, criticality alarm and emergency-planning interfaces, and implementation of engineered and administrative controls.
• HALEU & Heterogeneous Fuel: Experience analyzing enriched uranium, powders or kernels, TRISO particles, graphite or ceramic moderation, arrays, reflection, interaction, and credible upset conditions across changing process configurations.
• Nuclear QA & Software Control: Experience preparing configuration-controlled evaluations and calculation packages under ASME NQA-1, 10 CFR Part 50 Appendix B, DOE, or equivalent nuclear software-quality requirements.

Preferred Job Qualifications

• Direct experience analyzing TRISO-based fuels, High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU), or graphite moderated fuel elements.
• Background coordinating with transport security or logistics partners on nuclear material movement.
• Familiarity with the specific criticality safety challenges inherent to refueling operations.

Job Details

• Job Type: Full-time
• Salary Range: $145-180K
• Location: Oak Ridge, TN (Onsite)

About Protingent

Protingent is an Award-Winning provider of top-tier Engineering and IT talent, trusted by companies at the forefront of innovation - from Software and Aerospace to AI, Clean Tech, Medical Devices, and Connected Technologies. We're passionate about making a positive impact by connecting exceptional talent with meaningful opportunities and helping our clients build the future.