Nuclear Methods Engineer

The MCFR Nuclear Methods Engineer scope centers on nuclear analysis methods for design and licensing of a demonstration MCFR reactor, beginning with development and implementation of nuclear analysis capabilities and evolving toward software qualification under and NQA-1 environment.

You’ll collaborate with the modeling and simulation lead, MCFR plant design engineers, and the nuclear validation lead in a high-performing, multi-disciplinary environment to automate and then validate these nuclear methodologies. This scope is remote eligible. Work with us in this high impact role to help advance a first-of-a-kind nuclear reactor towards commercial development.

Tasks:

• Development of neutronics methods to perform neutronics analysis of a fast spectrum molten salt reactor.
• Implementation nuclear analysis methodologies via Python software
• Core design and analysis activities of advanced nuclear reactors, including calculation and optimization of fuel management strategies, reactivity coefficients, control rod worth and shutdown margin, and radiation damage.
• Software configuration management through code review, software documentation, software testing, and continuous integration.
• Sensitivity studies to understand the effects and validity of various modeling assumptions, including delayed neutron fractions, evaluated nuclear data sets, geometry representation, etc.
• Validation of neutronics analysis by leveraging benchmark models of historical reactors, reactor experiments, and critical assemblies.

Key Qualifications and Skills:

• Bachelors degree in Science or Engineering and 6 – 10 years of relevant experience. Experience Level may be partially substituted for advanced degree depending on position relevance.
• Experience in understanding and executing nuclear design/analysis methodologies, including criticality, flux/power distributions, fuel cycle analyses, reactivity coefficients, shielding, activation, control rod worth, detector response, and uncertainty analysis, ideally with a focus on fast-neutron reactors.
• Experience with radiation transport software is required. Experience with MCNP, OpenMC, Attila, is preferred. Experience with ARMI, Serpent, SCALE, DIF3D, MC2, PARTISN, MOOSE, PARCS, APA, CASMO, DRAGON, is also relevant.
• Programming experience in any language required, preferably in scientific computing; bonus points for Python skills.
• Working knowledge of fundamental software development tools (e.g. IDEs, version control, profilers, debuggers, documentation builders, packaging tools).
• Experience interacting on nuclear methodology with the DOE and/or NRC under an ASME NQA-1 compliant QA environment is preferred.
• Strong communication skills desired.
• The service provider will possess a high degree of trust and integrity, communicate openly and display respect, and a desire to foster teamwork.