Discover: Careers in Nuclear Engineering

What does a Nuclear Engineer or a Health Physicist do?

Here is but a partial list of the jobs in high demand for nuclear engineers and health physicists:

• Constructing and operating nuclear power plants
• Designing, constructing, and operating advanced nuclear power plants
• Investigating and optimizing advanced nuclear fuel cycles
• Designing, constructing, and operating fusion reactors
• Analyzing and preparing for long-term energy security for this country and the world
• Designing, constructing, and operating advanced power systems for the US naval fleet
• Designing and constructing power systems for space exploration and propulsion
• Designing methods for securing, verifying, and productivity utilizing excess nuclear weapons material
• Developing arms control and nonproliferation technologies
• Expanding and improving the use of radionuclides in medicine
• Advancing medical imaging
• Providing new radiotherapy technologies
• Improving food safety using radiation pasteurization
• Remediating nuclear waste generated during the cold war
• Designing and constructing nuclear waste storage strategies and facilities
• Monitoring and remediating environmental exposures to radiation
• Helping to quantify risk from radiation exposure including nonionizing radiation
• Controling and monitoring the use of radioisotopes in industrial and medical facilities
• Regulating and auditing the use of radionuclides in industry, medicine, and research
• Designing improved transport methods for moving nuclear waste and useful isotopes
• Extending the operating life of present nuclear power plants
• Managing the use of radionuclides and nuclear fuel
• Providing technical expertise for use of radionuclides and nuclear fuel
• and many, many others

Who employs Nuclear Engineers?

• Electrical power companies
  (TXU, Entergy, the Southern Company, STP...)
• Reactor manufacturers
  (General Electric, Westinghouse, Combustion Engineering...)
• Architect-engineering firms
  (Bechtel, British Nuclear Fuels...)
• Consulting firms
  (EXCEL Services Corp., Stone and Webster...)
• National laboratories
  (Battelle, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Argonne,...)
• Federal government
  (NRC, CIA, DOD, DOE, EPA, FBI,...)
• Hospital and medical research centers
  (MD Anderson, Methodist Teaching Hospital,...)
• Industry
  (Schlumberger, Armstrong, Exxon, Southwest Technologies,...)
• Other government agencies
  (NASA, state licensing agencies, DOT,...)