Principal Engineer, Nuclear Analysis

TerraPower LLC.; Bellevue (WA); On-site; USD 154,000 - 205,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Competitive compensation

Job summary

TerraPower LLC in Bellevue, WA seeks a Principal Engineer, Nuclear Analysis to lead core design and analysis for advanced reactors, optimizing fuel management, reactivity coefficients, and shutdown margins. You will design and evaluate new systems and perform sensitivity studies, documenting all results.

Ideal candidates bring 7+ years in nuclear engineering, strong MCNP experience, and the ability to work in NQA-1 environments, with excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Qualifications

• B.S. or higher in Nuclear Engineering or related field from an accredited university.
• 7+ years direct nuclear engineering experience.
• Strong MCNP experience required.
• Familiarity with other nuclear software (DIF3D, PARTISN, RELAP, SCALE, PARCS, APA, CASMO/SIMULATE, DRAGON).
• Excellent verbal and communication skills; ability to work in regulated environments (NQA-1).

Responsibilities

• Perform core design and analysis activities for advanced nuclear reactors, including fuel management, power distributions, and shutdown margins.
• Design and analyze new systems to solve complex problems.
• Conduct sensitivity studies and validate modeling assumptions; maintain documentation of results.

Skills

MCNP expertise

Programming skills

Excellent communication

Team collaboration

Nuclear engineering fundamentals

Education

Bachelor's or higher in Nuclear Engineering

Tools

MCNP

DIF3D

PARTISN

RELAP

SCALE

PARCS

CASMO/SIMULATE

DRAGON

Job description

TerraPower is a nuclear technology company based in Bellevue, Washington. At its core, the company is working to raise living standards globally through a more affordable, secure, and environmentally friendly form of nuclear energy along with innovations in medical isotopes to improve human health. In 2006, TerraPower originated with Bill Gates and a group of like-minded visionaries who evaluated the fundamental challenges to raising living standards around the world. They recognized energy access was crucial to the health and economic well-being of communities and decided that the private sector needed to take action and create energy sources that would advance global energy deployment. TerraPower’s mission is to be a world leader in new nuclear technologies, while developing innovators and future leaders in the nuclear field. As a result, the company’s activities in the fields of nuclear energy and related sciences are yielding significant innovations in the safety and economics of nuclear power, hybrid energy and medical applications – all for significant human health benefits.

TerraPower is seeking to hire highly motivated and forward-thinking professionals who are interested in focusing on advanced nuclear reactor research and development and influencing change within the nuclear power landscape and bringing forward the critical production of medical isotopes. TerraPower is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religious creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected Veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

Principal Engineer, Nuclear Analysis

TerraPower, LLC. Is seeking a highly motivated Principal Nuclear Analysis Engineer. In this role, you will:

• Perform core design and analysis activities of advanced nuclear reactors, including calculation and optimization of fuel management, power distributions, reactivity coefficients, control rod worth and shutdown margin, sensitivity and uncertainties, consistent with required functional and quality requirements
• Design and analyze new systems for solving complex problems
• Design and execute sensitivity studies to understand the effects and validity of various modeling assumptions, including meshing, physics coupling, transport options, cross section preparation, fission product treatment, spatial kinetics, etc., and help build corrected methods if necessary
• Establish and maintain documentation of analysis results and nuclear design solutions

Work at TerraPower is dynamic and evolutionary. As such, new responsibilities often arise, and you should be capable of and excited about learning and applying specialized skills.

Key Qualifications and Skills

• Experience:
  • B.S. or higher in Nuclear Engineering, or related discipline from an accredited university and 7+ years direct experience with proven nuclear engineering skills. Higher education will count towards years of experience.
• Knowledge of basic nuclear reactor design concepts to meaningfully support engineering team with understanding of 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: we like to consider computers as the universe at our fingertips rather than burdensome necessities
• Strong MCNP experience is required; experience with other nuclear engineering software such as DIF3D, MC2, PARTISN, RELAP, SCALE, PARCS, APA, CASMO/SIMULATE, DRAGON, etc., is preferred.
• Good working knowledge of nuclear and/or general numerical methods (e.g. PDEs, dynamics, deterministic and stochastic particle transport, isotopic depletion, perturbation theory, nuclear data, kinetics, etc.)
• Experience in transient analysis, thermal hydraulics, fuel performance, etc. is desired
• Fast reactor experience or experience with Core Operating Limits Report/Tech Specs is desired
• Excellent verbal and communication skills
• Ability and professionalism to work within published regulatory guidelines for nuclear reactor design
• An ability to perform professional-quality software development for nuclear applications is preferred
• Strong programming skills in any language is a plus
• Experience working in NQA-1 environments desired
• Maintain software by working with team to implement clearly defined enhancement requests and bug fixes
• The successful candidate will possess a high degree of trust and integrity, communicate openly and display respect, and a desire to foster teamwork.

This position is subject to qualification requirements in accordance with ANSI/ANS 3.1. Candidates must meet the minimum education and experience criteria applicable to the role, including relevant nuclear industry experience where required. Verification of data will be part of the hiring process.

Job Functions:

Job Functions are physical actions and/or working conditions associated with the position. These functions may also constitute essential functions for the job which the employee must be able to fulfill, with or without accommodation. Information provided below is to help describe the job so that the applicant has a reasonable understanding of the job duties/expectations. An applicant's ability to perform and/or tolerate these actions and conditions will be discussed and workplace accommodations may be made on a case-by-case basis following an individualized assessment of the applicant and other considerations, including but not limited to any governing safety standards.

• Motor Abilities: Sitting for extended periods, bending/stooping, grasping/gripping, fine motor control (hands)
• Physical exertion and/or requirements: Minimal, with ability to safely lift up to 25 pounds.
• Special Senses: Visual and audio focused work
• Work Conditions: Stairs, typing/keyboard, standard and/or sitting working environment of >8 hours/day
• Travel required 0-10%

TerraPower’s technology is controlled for export by various agencies of the U.S. Government. TerraPower must evaluate applicants who are foreign nationals (other than asylees, refugees, or lawful permanent residents) in accordance with U.S. Government export control requirements. To facilitate TerraPower’s export control reviews, you will be asked as part of the application process to identify whether you are a U.S. Citizen or national, asylee, refugee, or lawful permanent resident of the United States. Government export authorization approval times vary. Based on the business needs for a particular position, TerraPower may not consider a foreign national from a country if it is impracticable to obtain timely Government export approval.

Job details

Salary Range: $153,862 – $205,149 Any salary offered within the posted salary band is based on market data and commensurate with the selected candidate’s qualifications and experience. This range is specific to Washington State.

Job Type: Full-time

• Competitive Compensation
• Salary, eligible to participate in discretionary short-term incentive payments
• Comprehensive Medical and Wellness Benefits
  • Medical
  • Vision
  • Dental
  • Life and Disability
  • Gender Affimation Benefits
• 401k Plan
• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO)
  • 21 days of annually accrued PTO
• Generous Holiday Schedule
  • 10 paid holidays
• Relocation Assistance
• Professional and Educational Support Opportunities

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in TerraPower LLC.’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United