Principal Engineer, Nuclear Methods
TerraPowerBellevue, Washington, United States$149k–$193k/yr
Good fit if
- You can work a hybrid schedule.
- You have 15+ years of experience.
- You can travel 0 to 10% of the time.
Credentials that matter
Skills and tools
- Fast Reactor Physics
- Particle Transport
- MCNP
- Serpent
- Scale
- Python
- C++
- Fortran
- NRC Regulations
- ASME NQA-1
Required qualifications
- B.S. in Mechanical Engineering or related discipline from an accredited university
- 15+ years of relevant experience
- Fast reactor physics and design intuition
- Experience in understanding and executing nuclear design/analysis methodologies, including criticality, flux/power distributions, fuel management optimization, reactivity coefficients, shielding, activation, control rod worth, detector response, and uncertainty analysis, ideally with a focus on fast-neutron reactors
- Excellent 'under-the-hood' knowledge of the methods of reactor physics analysis (deterministic and stochastic particle transport, isotopic depletion, perturbation theory, nuclear data, kinetics, etc.)
- Strong computational expertise and ability to integrate and automate simulation tools
- Strong programming skills in any language; preferably scientific computing, Python, C++, and Fortran
- Demonstrable capabilities with fundamental software development tools (IDEs, version control, profilers, debuggers, documentation builders, packaging tools)
- Good working knowledge of general numerical methods and applied mathematics (PDEs, numerical stability, statistics, numerical analysis, dynamics)
- Strong formal technical documentation skills
About this role
TerraPower seeks a Nuclear Methods Engineer to support advanced reactor research and development by creating and validating nuclear methods software for licensing next-generation reactors. You'll combine deep reactor physics expertise with strong computational skills to design simulations, execute sensitivity studies, and ensure licensing compliance.
Responsibilities
- Create formal documentation of nuclear methods software requirements, design, implementation, and testing in support of licensing TerraPower reactors
- Update, improve, and/or create software to satisfy all licensing requirements during the Validation and Verification (V&V) process
- Incorporate additional 3rd-party programs in the simulation ecosystem as necessary to support licensing
- 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 models, and spatial kinetics
- Train and support reactor designers and developers in the use of the design software suite
- Build and apply methods to assess the propagation of uncertainty and their effect on safety margins
- Enhance engineering team's ability to build models and make meaningful conclusions from simulation output through input tools, visualization, and reports
Preferred qualifications
- Experience with nuclear engineering software such as DIF3D, MC2, PARTISN, MCNP, Serpent, SCALE, PARCS, APA, CASMO, DRAGON, ARMI
- Experience interacting on nuclear methodology with the NRC under an ASME NQA-1 compliant QA environment
- Strong verbal communication skills
- Advanced degree in lieu of some experience requirement
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