Senior Thermal Mechanical Engineer
Job Summary
The fuel performance analysis engineer performs thermal-mechanical design analyses to ensure fuel rod integrity throughout its design lifetime. This role collaborates with design experts and material scientists to establish operating limits for nuclear fuel bundle technologies. The engineer is responsible for maintaining fuel performance codes and documenting technical analyses to meet regulatory standards.
Responsibilities
- Perform thermal-mechanical fuel rod analysis
- Establish operating limits for fuel product lines
- Maintain and develop fuel performance modeling code
- Support NRC regulatory submittals and compliance
- Collaborate on transient and heat transfer analysis
Required Skills
- Thermal-mechanical/Nuclear fuel analysis
- Finite element analysis
- Python and FORTRAN
- Technical documentation
- Engineering project management
Job Details
Essential Responsibilities:
- Perform coupled heat transfer and finite element mechanical analyses for fuel rod pellet and cladding.
- Collaborate with fuel mechanical design experts, material scientists, and nuclear/thermal-hydraulic analysis engineers to ensure product performance.
- Establish thermal mechanical operating limits for new and existing fuel product lines.
- Assist in the evaluation of fuel behavior for generic and plant-specific transient analyses.
- Support fuel operations and address customer issues related to fuel pellets and cladding.
- Interpret operational and test data to drive improvements in modeling and methodologies.
- Maintain and develop fuel performance code.
- Provide well-written, organized engineering analyses to assure design adequacy.
- Maintain and develop technical design procedures associated with fuel rod design/analysis activities.
- Present to internal/external customers and nuclear regulators on fuel performance.
- Assist the team technical leader and functional manager in project execution.
- Perform work in accordance with NRC regulations, customer requirements, and business quality assurance standards.
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor's Degree in an engineering discipline.
- Minimum 8 years of experience in a technology or engineering role.
- Minimum 4 years of experience in thermal-mechanical or nuclear fuel analysis.
- Access to U.S. export-controlled information is required.
Desired Qualifications:
- Master's Degree or greater in an engineering discipline.
- Prior nuclear industry knowledge/experience.
- Experience with writing submittals to the NRC.
- Proven track record of complex engineering analyses and problem-solving.
- Experience with Python and FORTRAN.
- Strong communication skills and ability to work in a collaborative environment.