Postdoc: Prognostic AI-Driven Controls for Next-Gen Nuclear

Search Jobs - INL Professional Careers; Idaho Falls (ID); On-site; USD 95,000 - 116,000; Full time

Job summary

Idaho National Laboratory seeks a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Nuclear Engineering to develop prognostic informed advanced control for next-generation reactors. You will design ML models, implement real-time HITL testing, and contribute to AI-enabled control platforms in a collaborative environment.

You will publish research findings, present to lab leadership, and work with national labs and universities to advance SMR and modular reactor concepts.

Qualifications

• PhD in Nuclear Engineering, Mechanical/Electrical/Computer Engineering, Computer Sciences or Applied Mathematics with energy focus.
• PhD must be completed by appointment start and within last 5 years.
• Familiarity with advanced reactor concepts including SMRs/microreactors.
• Expertise in advanced control strategies for dynamic systems.
• Experience integrating AI interfaces or LLMs into scientific decision-support tools.
• Experience with transfer learning across environments/datasets.

Responsibilities

• Develop prognostic agents, ML models, and HITL testing for reactor controls.
• Publish results in high-impact journals and present at conferences.
• Collaborate across labs and universities to integrate AI-enabled control systems.

Skills

Machine learning frameworks

Reinforcement learning

Control theory

Model predictive control

HITL testing

Git version control

Python programming

Education

PhD in Nuclear Engineering or related field

Tools

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Keras

Scikit-learn

Job description

Idaho National Laboratory seeks a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Nuclear Engineering to develop prognostic informed advanced control for next-generation reactors. You will design ML models, implement real-time HITL testing, and contribute to AI-enabled control platforms in a collaborative environment.

You will publish research findings, present to lab leadership, and work with national labs and universities to advance SMR and modular reactor concepts.