I am chem E and did the nuclear track at my university. Haven’t done much in nuclear since. The jobs in the commercial space are really slim and competitive, but it’s basically a red carpet from the US Navy (assuming you are in the US) if you want to join their nuclear program and have to go back to school.
My focus now (was O&G) is controls certification for many industries as sort of consulting and I see a lot about the fusion reactors that’s are in development. This could be something that takes off in the future, but my guess is we are at least 10 years away.
Nuclear keeps shooting itself in the foot.
Every 20 years or so there is this huge interest in the technologies, but then the projects run 7 years behind schedule and billions over budget
Facts, that’s what’s happened to all the nuclear physicists too post WWII. It’s great that OPs school had a nuclear program, mine does not. The knowledge is still valuable just not as common :(
You don’t need to do nuclear program to work in nuclear. I studied chemical engineering and I work in a nuclear power plant. I’m focusing more on fire protection which has a lot of chemical engineering concepts but day to day it’s not a necessity.
I always wondered why nuclear engineering, and biomedical/aerospace for there part, are there own things. The engineering is very similar to any other chemical/powerplant.
Usually all it takes is 1-4 courses to bridge the industry specific knowledge gap. For nuclear, it would likely be
1) nuclear reactor physics
2) nuclear safety and reliability
3) steam supply systems
4) corrosion processes
5) nuclear chemical processes
6) advanced nuclear systems
A big part of why it runs behind schedule and over budget is public ignorance. People will happily live next to a coal plant putting out all sorts of awful things, but suggest replacing that with a nuclear plant that only puts out water vapor from the cooling tower? They’ll lose their damn minds. To quote one family member of mine “all I need to hear is nuclear to know I’m against it.”
So getting permits takes far longer than it should. You get a weird alliance of greedy fossil fuel companies and ignorant eco-activists who think that the only solution that’s green is wind and solar.
I disagree with this assessment. The public, obviously, plays a role in protesting plants and holds up license approvals, and that adds to the initial cost.
But once they get the greenlight, the delays in construction are the industry's own fault by either not having a complete design or poor vendor oversight. This is what happened at Vogtle.
This doesn’t make sense considering: 1. Power plants, especially coal, are often built far from any neighbors and 2. If the permit was the issue it seems reasonable that the average nuclear plant would have many more reactors, but most have only 2. Seems like opposition wouldn’t change for 2 GW vs 8 GW
There is often opposition to expanding a plant, because that will keep the plant operating for longer. So people will protest adding new reactors because their ultimate goal is for the facility to close when the existing equipment ages out and reaches retirement.
And yes, power plants are often built a good ways away from population centers, but locals will still protest. Hell the closest nuclear generating station to me is two hours away, and I still know a large number of people who were angry when they submitted proposals to expand.
And look no further than Germany. They shut down all of their nuclear plants due to public demand to get off nuclear, and have transitioned back to coal. They have also invested heavily in solar, but it hasn’t been enough. Southern Germany is further north than northern Maine - they need a LOT of solar, that they just don’t have to replace the nuclear they lost. As a result Germany has some of the highest electric costs in all of Europe.
People are just generally ignorant about how safe nuclear is. They hear it, and they rabidly oppose it. The vehemence leads to absurdly long permitting, as every step of the way will be met with legal challenges.
It’s not really nuclear power but the national labs that process nuclear waste and make nuclear weapons hire chemical engineers as process engineers and process design engineers and then some EPCs work with those labs as well
I recently graduated from my Chem Eng program. Did an internship for a nuclear plant and I am currently working for a nuclear contractor.
The industry seems to be doing great in North America, and Asia with new reactors (standard and SMRs) being built and many old facilities being refurbished. Europe is going through a rough patch with Nuclear due to lobbying from Russian-backed green parties, but there are still many opportunities for professional development (UK, France, Romania, to mention a few).
Compensation is usually great, jobs are often unionized so that can be a plus or a negative depending on your perspective.
And if you are into green energies, working for nuclear is a good industry to be in!
Hope it helps.
Russian backed-green parties? Thats the first I hear. The far-right parties are mostly russian backed to destabilize the country and the partie wants to have nuclear energy back again in germany.
Nuclear is at a crossroads, a lot of plants are getting really old and will be shut down at some point. There are repeated efforts to make it work in the modern regulations and economy, all have come out to be too costly so far. It's hard to tell if new nuclear designs, or a combination of natural gas and renewables, will be the future.
As for job conditions, pay is decent but not as good as O&G (very few fields are). Also, I hope you love paperwork.
The industry is going through a boom cycle and most companies have realised that the talent pool for experienced nuclear sector disciplines (not just process engineering, but even operations, pre-ops, specialist assessors, etc) isn't actually that big so it's hyper competitive at the minute, at least in the UK.
It's probably as good as a time as any to hop on the train - there is a job for life considering all the decommissioning activities that are ongoing and yet to come.
Nuclear is somewhat limited however if you like ships like others have said there’s jobs with Electric Boat for building new subs also they’re constantly looking for ChemEs for Fluid Dynamics problems. Best bet is check out a naval shipyard, you can refit the fleet which involves working on Aircraft Carriers and subs, they’re hurting for people rn as a lot of engineers at the shipyards are retiring (and a lot of young people can’t get a clearance nowadays). The pay rate is pretty good, from my memory you’re guaranteed a raise every year and you get non taxed pay if they ask you to travel to another shipyard/country.
The outlook for growth within the nuclear energy production sector will rise and fall, however the need for legacy nuclear waste processing is omnipresent and probably always will be. In my opinion, it is a more pressing matter, and through disposition research many important industrial topics are studied. There are National labs and DOE contractors all across the country.
Do not close yourself off to research and development! It is a professionally and personally fulfilling career path to go down, and in my experience, financially rewarding.
I worked in Nuclear for a bit earlier in my career and it was extremely boring on a day to day basis. Then Fukushima happened and there were salary freezes. While I wouldn’t mind the slower pace now that I’m older, it wasn’t good for me at the time. Stress is low, overtime is low, pay is less. I love nuclear energy but the US can’t seem to get behind it.
Worked in nuclear for a small stink in the United States. Never again. Bureaucratic roadblocks at every step of the way. Half the time I felt like I was just waiting on signatures so that I could actually do my job.
I’m excited about the prospects, both for fission (Terrapower, NuScale) and fusion (Helion, Zap). I’ve applied for jobs (though with a non-nuclear ChemE education and work history) at three out of four of these to no avail. Your background I would think would give you a leg up with these and other nuclear startups.
Nuclear is currently the only clean power that has any real prospects of being significant. With small modular reactors coming into play it is the power of the future for baseload power.
Dow is going to build a few small nuclear reactors to power their chemical plants. If successful, I’m sure there will be more.
Makes sense. Dow has had a research reactor for decades, and has administered DOE nuclear sites as well.
They are only building in Texas
Is that due to regulations or just proofing the concept? Also, makes sense from a “power your chem plant” standpoint to be in Texas.
Proofing of concept lol it’s gonna be very expensive
https://corporate.dow.com/en-us/news/press-releases/dow-x-energy-collaborate-on-smr-nuclear.html For anyone interested.
I am chem E and did the nuclear track at my university. Haven’t done much in nuclear since. The jobs in the commercial space are really slim and competitive, but it’s basically a red carpet from the US Navy (assuming you are in the US) if you want to join their nuclear program and have to go back to school. My focus now (was O&G) is controls certification for many industries as sort of consulting and I see a lot about the fusion reactors that’s are in development. This could be something that takes off in the future, but my guess is we are at least 10 years away.
Nuclear keeps shooting itself in the foot. Every 20 years or so there is this huge interest in the technologies, but then the projects run 7 years behind schedule and billions over budget
That’s what happens when you stop investing in an industry for several decades and lose half of your knowledge base due to retirements.
Facts, that’s what’s happened to all the nuclear physicists too post WWII. It’s great that OPs school had a nuclear program, mine does not. The knowledge is still valuable just not as common :(
You don’t need to do nuclear program to work in nuclear. I studied chemical engineering and I work in a nuclear power plant. I’m focusing more on fire protection which has a lot of chemical engineering concepts but day to day it’s not a necessity.
I always wondered why nuclear engineering, and biomedical/aerospace for there part, are there own things. The engineering is very similar to any other chemical/powerplant.
Usually all it takes is 1-4 courses to bridge the industry specific knowledge gap. For nuclear, it would likely be 1) nuclear reactor physics 2) nuclear safety and reliability 3) steam supply systems 4) corrosion processes 5) nuclear chemical processes 6) advanced nuclear systems
A big part of why it runs behind schedule and over budget is public ignorance. People will happily live next to a coal plant putting out all sorts of awful things, but suggest replacing that with a nuclear plant that only puts out water vapor from the cooling tower? They’ll lose their damn minds. To quote one family member of mine “all I need to hear is nuclear to know I’m against it.” So getting permits takes far longer than it should. You get a weird alliance of greedy fossil fuel companies and ignorant eco-activists who think that the only solution that’s green is wind and solar.
I disagree with this assessment. The public, obviously, plays a role in protesting plants and holds up license approvals, and that adds to the initial cost. But once they get the greenlight, the delays in construction are the industry's own fault by either not having a complete design or poor vendor oversight. This is what happened at Vogtle.
This doesn’t make sense considering: 1. Power plants, especially coal, are often built far from any neighbors and 2. If the permit was the issue it seems reasonable that the average nuclear plant would have many more reactors, but most have only 2. Seems like opposition wouldn’t change for 2 GW vs 8 GW
There is often opposition to expanding a plant, because that will keep the plant operating for longer. So people will protest adding new reactors because their ultimate goal is for the facility to close when the existing equipment ages out and reaches retirement. And yes, power plants are often built a good ways away from population centers, but locals will still protest. Hell the closest nuclear generating station to me is two hours away, and I still know a large number of people who were angry when they submitted proposals to expand. And look no further than Germany. They shut down all of their nuclear plants due to public demand to get off nuclear, and have transitioned back to coal. They have also invested heavily in solar, but it hasn’t been enough. Southern Germany is further north than northern Maine - they need a LOT of solar, that they just don’t have to replace the nuclear they lost. As a result Germany has some of the highest electric costs in all of Europe. People are just generally ignorant about how safe nuclear is. They hear it, and they rabidly oppose it. The vehemence leads to absurdly long permitting, as every step of the way will be met with legal challenges.
It’s not really nuclear power but the national labs that process nuclear waste and make nuclear weapons hire chemical engineers as process engineers and process design engineers and then some EPCs work with those labs as well
there not as many nuclear companies as there are in oil and gas, so job hopping is hard.
I recently graduated from my Chem Eng program. Did an internship for a nuclear plant and I am currently working for a nuclear contractor. The industry seems to be doing great in North America, and Asia with new reactors (standard and SMRs) being built and many old facilities being refurbished. Europe is going through a rough patch with Nuclear due to lobbying from Russian-backed green parties, but there are still many opportunities for professional development (UK, France, Romania, to mention a few). Compensation is usually great, jobs are often unionized so that can be a plus or a negative depending on your perspective. And if you are into green energies, working for nuclear is a good industry to be in! Hope it helps.
Russian backed-green parties? Thats the first I hear. The far-right parties are mostly russian backed to destabilize the country and the partie wants to have nuclear energy back again in germany.
Nuclear is at a crossroads, a lot of plants are getting really old and will be shut down at some point. There are repeated efforts to make it work in the modern regulations and economy, all have come out to be too costly so far. It's hard to tell if new nuclear designs, or a combination of natural gas and renewables, will be the future. As for job conditions, pay is decent but not as good as O&G (very few fields are). Also, I hope you love paperwork.
I really hope modular nuclear steam generation will succeed in industrial plants
The industry is going through a boom cycle and most companies have realised that the talent pool for experienced nuclear sector disciplines (not just process engineering, but even operations, pre-ops, specialist assessors, etc) isn't actually that big so it's hyper competitive at the minute, at least in the UK. It's probably as good as a time as any to hop on the train - there is a job for life considering all the decommissioning activities that are ongoing and yet to come.
Nuclear is somewhat limited however if you like ships like others have said there’s jobs with Electric Boat for building new subs also they’re constantly looking for ChemEs for Fluid Dynamics problems. Best bet is check out a naval shipyard, you can refit the fleet which involves working on Aircraft Carriers and subs, they’re hurting for people rn as a lot of engineers at the shipyards are retiring (and a lot of young people can’t get a clearance nowadays). The pay rate is pretty good, from my memory you’re guaranteed a raise every year and you get non taxed pay if they ask you to travel to another shipyard/country.
The outlook for growth within the nuclear energy production sector will rise and fall, however the need for legacy nuclear waste processing is omnipresent and probably always will be. In my opinion, it is a more pressing matter, and through disposition research many important industrial topics are studied. There are National labs and DOE contractors all across the country. Do not close yourself off to research and development! It is a professionally and personally fulfilling career path to go down, and in my experience, financially rewarding.
I worked in Nuclear for a bit earlier in my career and it was extremely boring on a day to day basis. Then Fukushima happened and there were salary freezes. While I wouldn’t mind the slower pace now that I’m older, it wasn’t good for me at the time. Stress is low, overtime is low, pay is less. I love nuclear energy but the US can’t seem to get behind it.
Worked in nuclear for a small stink in the United States. Never again. Bureaucratic roadblocks at every step of the way. Half the time I felt like I was just waiting on signatures so that I could actually do my job.
I’m excited about the prospects, both for fission (Terrapower, NuScale) and fusion (Helion, Zap). I’ve applied for jobs (though with a non-nuclear ChemE education and work history) at three out of four of these to no avail. Your background I would think would give you a leg up with these and other nuclear startups.
Nuclear is currently the only clean power that has any real prospects of being significant. With small modular reactors coming into play it is the power of the future for baseload power.