Hello everyone, (sorry for the long post)

I am currently a Process Operator for Dow Chemical in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I spent six years in the military doing aircraft maintenance before leaving service to pursue my goals in the civilian world. I have always been extremely interested in anything and everything Nuclear and have pursued the path towards becoming a licensed nuclear equipment operator for the past few years.

Directly out of the military I applied for a maintenance position at Waterford 3, passed the MASS test, but ultimately didn’t get it, understandably because I had never worked in a plant before. So that’s where I started. After some time I, completely by chance, met one of the supervisors at River Bend and he let me know that they’d be hiring a class of operators soon. I applied, passed the POSS test, interviewed, apparently made the short list or so I was told, but didn’t get hired.

With the sole intent of making myself a better candidate I got an internship with Dow, finished that, and have been working as an operator since. (About two years) I really wanted River Bend so I applied again, but never even got called for an interview. My application said “requisition closed” instead of “not selected” so I’m guessing they didn’t hire anybody?

Going forward I’m unsure what to do.

Unfortunately multiple years worth of patience is something I struggle with and I don’t want to keep wasting time putting in annual applications that aren’t going anywhere.

My family is somewhat open to moving and we are very interested in Sequoyah Nuclear Plant near Chattanooga, Tennessee and their SGPO program. I’ve tried contacting TVA with no reply.

Any advice on applications and breaking into nuclear operations would be very helpful.

Thanks for reading my life’s story! 🤙

Well, it's official, the Zaporizhzhia Power Plant in Ukraine is set to run out of diesal for their backup generators by September 7th.

What do we think?

How do we feel about the effects on the industry over the next 10 years?

I'm playing HoI4 and I am making a Nuclear Reactor. I am curious on which is better in real life. Purified Graphite or Heavy Water?

I didn’t receive anything after my second interview for NOIT at Bruce Power, is they anyone who received anything ?

I heard some people received acceptance and some refusal

Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It results from many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare earth mining, and nuclear weapons reprocessing.

How can nuclear fusion contribute to sustainable energy solutions in the context of increasing electricity demand?

The demand for electricity is increasing due to technologies like electric cars and AI data centers. Nuclear fusion, which fuses atoms to produce heat for generating power, offers a potential source of vast, low-emission energy. However, it is costly because it requires tritium, a rare hydrogen isotope. Researchers are now working on systems to produce tritium from nuclear waste, which could make fusion energy more feasible.

Terence Tarnowsky, a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), will present his research on converting nuclear waste into tritium at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2025 meeting, held August 17-21, featuring about 9,000 science presentations.

Currently, nuclear power plants use nuclear fission, where plutonium or uranium atoms split, releasing energy and neutrons to sustain a chain reaction, but this generates long-lived nuclear waste. In contrast, nuclear fusion combines atomic nuclei—specifically isotopes of hydrogen called deuterium and tritium—to create energy with minimal radioactive waste, similar to how stars produce energy

While deuterium is abundant, the U.S. lacks a reliable domestic supply of tritium, which is crucial for fusion reactors. Tarnowsky highlights that commercial tritium is extremely expensive—around 15millionperpound(15 million per pound (33 million per kilogram)—and the U.S. currently cannot produce it domestically, leading to a significant supply shortage. Researchers are therefore focusing on converting nuclear waste into tritium to address this challenge.

Industries produce tritium for scientific and commercial use. One way is by bombarding lithium with neutrons. This method creates tritium and helium. Tritium is also collected from heavy water reactors. Plants extract tritium from the water that cools the reactors. These processes produce tritium in controlled amounts for use. Nuclear reactions are a major source of tritium. In nuclear reactors, neutrons react with lithium or boron to make tritium. Fusion experiments also produce tritium. Scientists use tritium as fuel in fusion reactors. These reactions help create tritium for research and energy production.

In conclusion, nuclear fusion holds significant promise as a sustainable energy solution to meet the growing electricity demand driven by advancements in technology. By offering a low-emission power source with the potential for minimal radioactive waste, fusion could revolutionize energy production. However, the challenge of tritium supply remains a major hurdle, as the U.S. currently lacks a domestic source for this essential fuel. Terence Tarnowsky's research into converting nuclear waste into tritium presents a potentially transformative approach to addressing this issue, making fusion energy more feasible and accessible. As research progresses and innovations arise, nuclear fusion could play a crucial role in creating a cleaner and more sustainable energy future.

My clearance is in progress and I might join Kinectrics soon in DE&S? How is work culture? Is there work life balance?

Idk if this is the right community for this but I want to see if I’m screwed.

I applied for the job and got a conditional offer. They told me I would just need to pass a background check. They made it seem like as long as I could pass a drug test and wasn’t a felon I’d be okay. I’m a veteran that held a top secret clearance and never had any run ins with the law. With that in mind, I gave my old job notice and my two weeks were up the Friday before my background check.

When they saw my DD214 everything changed. They saw that I was discharged due to PTSD and they started asking 100 questions and really diving into my record. When they asked if I’d smoked weed in the last 5 years I told them once when I first got out of the military 4 years ago. That added fuel to the fire. They then requested all military health records, my VA disability breakdown, and my current psychiatrist notes. I didn’t think much of it, but when I pulled up my records I saw that both my psychiatrist notes and VA disability mentioned cannabis use. The verbiage is pretty vague so I’m worried that they might see that as “Lack of candor”. Mainly because Im my psychiatrist notes say that I started when I was 19 and used it intermittently and would use it based on my anxiety levels. It doesn’t say that I smoked currently, but I feel like that leaves it up to interpretation.

If anyone has any experience dealing with this, how grim is my outlook?

NOTE: I have never failed a drug test or have smoked in the last 4 years. My military record shows every drug test that I ever took and my last job drug tested.

Does anyone work for constellation or any power generation plant? Just wanted to know if power generation pays good and what it’s possible to make? Do they offer as much OT like other plants? Adding your state would be great too.

I’m about to take my fun 1 exam here in a few weeks to become a junior rp tech. My class got messed up as well as me not understanding the order of things due to what people told me and the timing I got my material, so I did the 6 nisps before doing the fun 1 material. I have just over 2 weeks to review all the material and I’m super stressed about it. My friend said he studied 4 months and only barely passed with an 83 (80 is required). So how hard really is it and can I realistically pass with 2 weeks of study?

I'm about to enter 9th grade and I'm super passionate for nuclear engineering. I want to do it for a living and don't have much doubts but still want second opinions from experts and people who've been in this field for a while. I'm pretty set on NE for a living but am having doubts for my university/college. I'm aiming for high schools like MIT or University of Wisconsin (which is apparently one of the best universities in the world for NE). I was wondering if NE is a career with good progression. I've done a little bit of research, and I know that NE pays better than most engineering disciplines, but the overall job expansion seems pretty stagnant which is daunting. I don't live in the US. I live in the UAE as a Canadian citizen. I'm either going to study in Canada or in the US/abroad if I get into a great university. My questions are, is NE a good career to get into in this day and age, and am I better of studying civil engineering? I heard that NE and civil engineering are pretty similar and that I can probably get a NE job despite studying civil. Apparently, the perks of studying civil are that I can still get into a NE job and I can get civil engineering jobs, which gives me a wider range, which might be good because the NE job growth seems pretty stagnant (according to US government sources, total jobs are planning to go down by 1% in the next 10 years). My concern with studying civil engineering instead of NE are that it's gonna make my years in university miserable. Regardless of the discipline, engineering is HARD, and I thought studying specifically NE, which I'm passionate about, would make it better for me, and I'm worried I won't make it through the same if I don't take NE, and I've heard that your years in university are the years where your life either makes it, or breaks. Any opinions on NE as an engineer at all would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.

I'm 17, I just finished my ged and my dad told me about radiation safety technicians, and ive been doing research into it, but it's mostly been through Google Gemini, I want real opinions on ppl who are already in this field, my plan is to get an associate degree and then after become a contractor, and like work outages, I heard that's it really stressful, but like to me it's quiet worth it becuz u have opportunities to make alot of money during that period and then go on a break after, I'm curious about the pay, like how much they get paid, like both those who are contractors amd those who work normal 9-5s and also I'm curious like where is the best place to work( like is it in hospitals or like on nuclear sites or some place else idk) and also curious on how scalable it is, like can i grow and like eventually start earning a very good amount of money in maybe my mid or late 20s or even early 30s idk, my goal is to just to be financially fully independent as soooo as possible, if someone who has works or currently work in this field, pls help give me a full break down on the carear. I'm super careful about my future that's why I wanna make sure I'm getting into the right career

before i make that move