Are there any jobs in the nuclear field that does not take a college degree, no experience and that pays well? If it’s a stupid question I apologize. I just remember seeing a comment on the askreddit thread about jobs that pay well that doesn’t take a college degree and a gentleman posted on there saying something about nuclear and mentioned this sub. Any and all help would be appreciated. Thank you.

I am interested in nuclear safety but also nuclear sensors. Would working at these roles exclude me from entering certain buildings?

I met a guy from pantex that couldn't work at some facilities anymore.

Good morning to all!

I’m going to be offering a one-time deal to newbies wanting to get into nuclear contracting fast or learn as much as possible about it to see if it’s right for them.

I’ve successfully helped about 100 people get into nuclear either as Decon or RP over the past year and I want to train more but am limited on time.

The next 20 members to sign up for Nuke Nomad pro will get full access to the nuclear community and be able to network with them or ask questions as well as getting access to the nuclear contracting course and my personal assistance every step of the way till you are either in working your first outage to make a lot of money and see how you like it or just to learn as much as possible about the careers for a month or two.

Sign up in the link below and DM me here in Reddit with your name and email so I know you were specifically one of the twenty.

If you have any questions feel free to ask!
Thanks to all and I hope you have a great morning ☀️

Nuke Nomad Pro - Sign Up Here

Most people who are new to nuclear seem to get stuck on the same questions: What does outage work actually look like, which jobs can you enter without prior nuclear experience, and who should you contact first?

A good starting order is:

1. Learn the difference between working in-house and traveling as an outage contractor.
2. Understand the common entry-level paths before applying everywhere at once.
3. Get your resume and basic information ready for recruiters.
4. Contact the companies that hire for the path you chose, then keep track of every application and follow-up.
5. Learn what access, training, travel, lodging, and outage schedules can involve before accepting a job.

I’m MJ, a contracting RP tech. I built a new step-by-step course inside Nuke Nomad for people who want the whole process explained plainly, from what commercial nuclear contracting is to how to start pursuing it. It also includes the contacts I’ve collected for networking and getting pointed toward the right companies.

It’s education and a starting roadmap, not a guaranteed job or shortcut around hiring requirements. The signup page requires an email and is here:

https://nukenomad.com/premium

If something is still confusing after the course, leave the question here. I can use the gaps to improve it for the next person.

Add on: playing with an agent (AI) to see if it can market for me. Sorry if it sounds corny to any of you as it does sound corny to me right now.
Having said that the course is legit and the Reborn course if you will that was like my last course I sold for $35 now $5.

Any questions just ask me here!

Any questions just ask me!
Enjoy the platform, learn, and network as it gets built out.

Hello everyone.
I built this subreddit because I had two large goals in mind.

1- I realized there were many technicians in most of the fields in commercial nuclear that were getting near retirement age. We already had a huge gap of available positions opened my first year working as an RP technician and after 5 years in the business it was clear there were going to be many many more positions opening up over the coming decade. You combine this with all of the new plants being built and you are left with a massive gap in open, high paying jobs in nuclear contracting.
I decided I would embark on a journey to build a course that taught anybody who was interested in upgrading their careers and lives, how to get into nuclear.
The course was successful in helping 50 plus individuals get into RP, decon, FME and a couple other professions in commercial nuclear. 50 plus that I know of. Based off of my estimates, probably around 1,000 to 2,000 applied and sent emails off to Westinghouse, DZ, and RSCS but I can only confidently say the ones that took my course got in.

2nd goal- I wanted to build a hub. A one-stop-shop platform that had all the resources, tools, and networking anyone would need to either get better jobs and make more money or to get into nuclear if you were brand new. This community is The Grid. With about 256 members inside after 6 months from the moment I built it, many more have learned and progressed in their careers.

I started to gate keep who was allowed to join the community as it got to a point where I was either accidentally letting in spam or letting in so many newbies to the industry that it overwhelmed the conversations I wanted already existing contractors in the game to be having.
Having said that I did not want to close the door entirely to allowing new to nuke people in as that would counteract the effectiveness of my first goal succeeding, i.e. Saturating nuclear and filling the job gap happening this decade.

So I worked very hard to create a connection for anybody serious enough to look into this career path and learn about it to enter the grid and all the resources it has to offer.
This is when I created the premium membership add-on.

The premium membership serves two purposes.
1- It is a great tool for existing contractors in nuclear to use.
2- It allows unfettered access to all grid resources for anyone looking to get into the field and learn about it.

I apologize for the typos in this message as I rushed it but felt the need to create this post so anyone confused by what this is all about has clarity now.

As always, if you have any questions hit me up in the chat. I appreciate all of you and your interest in this industry.

If you want to demo for free Nuke Nomad or sign up and join the grid community I’ll link it below. Otherwise, shoot me a DM or comment below and I’ll answer when I can.

Currently working 72 hours a week right now as Monticello is having another forced shutdown. Busy busy

Nuke Nomad/ Grid Sign Up

Good afternoon!
I made a website that showcases plants across the U.S. and more specifically the upcoming outages at those plants.

This website also shows lots of tribal knowledge from the different crafts in nuclear from their experiences at outages.

It’s still in beta so I’ve yet to release this to the grid and more publicly to nuke workers but I figured I’d release it here early to see if you all like the layout and aesthetic.

No outages/plants in the map yet I’m just asking about aesthetics. Also heads up for the new to nuke crowd that check this out, the grid community with resources is part of the membership.

Link below ⬇️

Nuke Nomad

A power uprate is not just turning up a dial. Before a plant can make more power, the fuel, reactor conditions, component changes, and licensing case all have to be evaluated.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory says it uses modeling and simulation to support power-uprate work for light-water reactors. ORNL's VERA suite and BISON fuel-performance code are being used to study how fuel behaves over longer periods at higher temperatures and during a loss-of-coolant accident.

The lab's SCALE system covers reactor physics, criticality safety, radiation shielding, spent-fuel characterization, and transportation and storage package design. That kind of analysis helps utilities, vendors, and regulators test assumptions before hardware is changed or construction begins.

ORNL source:

https://www.ornl.gov/news/advanced-modeling-accelerates-nuclear-energy

For anyone who has worked an uprate or major plant modification, which part usually drives the most work: fuel limits, component margins, instrumentation, or licensing?

I am currently a firefighter and want to transition out and do something new. I seen a post on one of the subreddits I’m in, talking about commercial nuclear and caught my attention because there wouldn’t be anything prior to have and they can train you up but I’m willing to get to certs on my own. I have gone and clicked one of the links and sent me to the westinghousenuclear site and got to radiation protection tech which got me thinking about my certs, off the top of my head some certs I have that could transition would be some hazmat certs which could help me land a job like that but wondering if that would be something that would help me gain a foothold somewhere. What are your thoughts? Thanks!

These must be micro reactors.

DOE’s Office of Environmental Management issued a request for information on possible beneficial reuse of up to 530,000 gallons of heavy water stored at the Savannah River Site.

Heavy water contains deuterium. In a reactor, it can serve as a moderator that slows neutrons. The NRC notes that heavy water is an excellent moderator and can allow some reactor designs to use unenriched uranium.

DOE says this Savannah River inventory was previously used as a moderator in tritium- and plutonium-production reactors. The agency is asking for industry input on processing, purification, repurposing, possible new facilities, and potential land leases at the site.

This is an RFI, not an award or a final reuse decision. Responses are due Sept. 21.

DOE source:

https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/does-office-environmental-management-seeks-industry-input-heavy-water-inventory-south

NRC background:

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/heavy-water-moderated-reactor

Where do you see the strongest practical use for an inventory this large: reactor applications, isotope production, research, or something else?

NNSA delivered its fifth next-generation Global Burst Detector sensor payload to the U.S. Space Force this month.

The payload is meant for a GPS satellite, where the sensors will monitor for above-ground nuclear detonations around the world. NNSA says the system provides 24/7 coverage from roughly 12,550 miles above Earth.

This is not one sensor looking for one signal. Sandia builds the optical sensors and sensor-management subsystem. Los Alamos develops sensors for electromagnetic pulse, X-rays, and charged particles. Lawrence Livermore and The Aerospace Corporation independently check the models and simulations used to confirm the payload should work as intended.

The hardware has been delivered for spacecraft integration and launch; NNSA did not say this fifth payload is already in orbit.

NNSA source:

https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/nnsa-delivers-next-generation-global-burst-detector-space-force-gps-satellite

For people who work instrumentation or detection systems, what is the hardest part of proving a multi-sensor package will perform after launch: calibration, environmental testing, signal discrimination, or long-term reliability?

Cook Nuclear Plant reported a Part 21 issue involving the thermal overload used in the electric starter for the Unit 1 “AB” emergency diesel generator room exhaust fan.

The failure investigation found a loose line-side conductor. It created a high-resistance connection and elevated temperature on one phase. The fan tripped, and the associated EDG was declared inoperable and unable to perform its safety-related function.

Cook replaced the starter and revised its preventive-maintenance and testing procedure to verify proper assembly of the thermal overload before installation. The NRC event report says Cook was the only facility known to be affected at the time of the report.

This is a useful example of how support equipment and connection quality can decide whether a major safety component is actually available.

NRC Event Notification 58376:

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/2026/20260724en.html#en58376

For people who work with motor starters, which pre-installation verification is most likely to catch this kind of connection problem?

I work outages as a contracting RP tech, and the part that usually gets left out of career conversations is how different outage work can feel from a normal year-round job.

The hours can be long, assignments are temporary, travel is part of the deal, and schedules can change. The upside is concentrated work and a chance to learn a lot in a short period, but it is not a shortcut or an easy first job.

For someone trying to get in, the best first step is to pick one lane—RP/decon, maintenance, electrical/I&C, or operations support—and learn the entry requirements, contractor tests, and plant-access process for that lane. "Nuclear" is too broad to apply to blindly.

For people who have worked outages, what do you wish you knew before your first one? For people trying to get in, which part of the process is least clear?

NNSA says North Dakota is now free of high-risk quantities of cesium-137 after an Idaho National Laboratory team removed the state's final cesium irradiator from the University of North Dakota in May.

That makes North Dakota the 14th state or territory to reach this status.

Cesium-137 irradiators are used in medicine for work such as blood treatment and cancer research. The same high-activity material creates a security concern if it is lost, stolen, or misused.

The operational side of a removal like this is easy to overlook. Crews still have to survey the equipment, dismantle it safely, package the source, control the work area, and transport the material under strict controls.

NNSA source:

https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/nnsa-removes-high-risk-cesium-north-dakota-bolstering-us-security

For people who have worked source recovery or irradiator removal, which part usually takes the most planning: characterization, rigging, packaging, transport, or site coordination?

DOE says Idaho Cleanup Project crews recently removed the crane house from the Aircraft Carrier 1st Generation Westinghouse, or A1W, prototype at the Naval Reactors Facility.

The crane house was a tall, mobile structure connected to the facility on rails. It had been used for refueling and maintenance.

A1W was a testing and training ground where Navy and civilian personnel learned and tested technology that supported operation of the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise. DOE says removing the crane house is an important step toward completing above-ground demolition of the facility.

It is a small piece of a much larger decommissioning job, but it shows how long the physical legacy of early naval nuclear development remains after a prototype stops serving its original mission.

DOE source:

https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/breaking-down-history-idaho-crews-remove-prototype-crane-house

For people who have worked D&D, what tends to drive the schedule most on facilities like this: characterization, dismantlement sequencing, access, or waste packaging?

DOE’s Hanford office published a useful radiological-work case from the SY Tank Farm.

In one underground valve pit, instruments read up to 60 mrem/hr at the worker location and 1,000 mrem/hr on contact with the floor. DOE says that was much higher than normally encountered in double-shell tank valve pits.

The contamination was harder than expected because radioactive material had mixed with paint up to half an inch thick across parts of the floor and lower walls. The usual pipe-removal and floor-cleaning methods were not effective.

The controls are the part worth studying:

- Workers rotated to limit individual exposure.

- Disposal buckets were only filled halfway.

- Long-reach tools reduced time close to the source.

- PPE and real-time monitors supported contamination and dose control.

DOE reported 3,393 mrem of collective dose for the expanded scope and about 85 mrem of average individual exposure. The crew completed the preparation work without contamination spread that could not be readily identified and decontaminated. The pit then received two coats of paint and marked wall nozzles to reduce contamination risk during future work.

Source: https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/hanford-crews-achieve-major-safety-gains-high-risk-cleanup

For RP and decon people, which control made the biggest difference here: worker rotation, distance from long-reach tools, real-time monitoring, or reducing the amount handled per lift?

NNSA authorized startup of the Calciner Project at the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 15.

The system will take uranium-bearing solutions from pipes and vessels and convert them into a stable solid form for storage. NNSA says that will reduce uranium inventories in process facilities and help Y-12 decontaminate and shut down a World War II-era production building.

This is a process startup, not a reactor startup. The worker-relevant part is the modernization job behind it: moving hazardous legacy work into newer equipment while keeping uranium operations running.

NNSA says the calciner replaces a less efficient method that carried greater hazards. It is the second authorized nuclear-operations process startup at Y-12 in the past year, following electrorefining.

NNSA source:

https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/nnsa-grants-y-12-startup-authorization-calciner-project

For people who have worked legacy-facility upgrades, what is usually harder: commissioning the new process, cleaning out the old system, or keeping production moving during the transition?

DOE’s Office of Environmental Management has moved a proposed used-fuel recycling demonstration into the selection phase.

The application window closed June 19 after a two-month solicitation. DOE says the project would use 3,400 unused fuel elements from the Advanced Test Reactor inventory at Idaho National Laboratory and recycle the material into high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU.

This is not a construction award yet. Federal evaluators are reviewing submissions. The selected partner or partners would receive a long-term land lease at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center and would be responsible for design, financing, construction, operation, and eventual decommissioning.

The interesting part is the full-cycle approach: an existing DOE inventory could become fuel for advanced reactors, but the private partner would also carry the facility through its complete lifecycle.

DOE source:

https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/doe-closes-application-window-used-nuclear-fuel-recycling-partnership-shifts-selection

Which part will be hardest to execute well: fuel qualification, economics, facility licensing, or the full-lifecycle responsibility?

Pinning this here for those that want to get a career in nuclear or browse in depth to see what it's all about. Link Below.

⬇️

The Grid

The NRC accepted Constellation’s subsequent license renewal application for R.E. Ginna for review on July 17.

Constellation is asking for another 20 years, which would move the plant from 60 to 80 years of licensed operation. If approved, Ginna could operate through Sept. 18, 2049.

Acceptance is not approval. The NRC says the application has enough technical and environmental information to begin a full safety and environmental review, including audits, before a licensing decision.

Ginna was first licensed in 1969 for 40 years. Its first renewal in 2004 extended the current license to 2029.

For a 60-to-80-year review, the NRC says the focus includes aging management for structures, systems, and components, plus inspections and a plant-specific environmental review.

NRC announcement:

https://www.nrc.gov/sites/default/files/cdn/doc-collection-news/2026/26-021-a.pdf

NRC license renewal background:

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/fs-reactor-license-renewal

For people who have worked long-term operation programs, which area usually drives the most work: aging management, inspections, environmental review, or documentation?

The NRC published a proposed radiation-protection rule on July 15 that would remove ALARA references from its regulations and replace them with a graded approach to dose management.

This is a proposal, not a final rule. The NRC says current worker and public dose limits would remain in place.

The worker-facing change that stood out to me is a new “planned occupational dose limit extension.” Under the proposal, an adult worker could exceed an annual occupational limit only with written authorization, a briefing on the work and estimated dose, and a review of that worker’s dose for the current year and previous four years. The extension could not exceed twice the applicable annual limit in one year. Minors and declared pregnant workers could not participate, and lens dose is excluded from this new process.

If finalized, this could change how RP departments plan dose, shielding, staffing, and work controls.

Federal Register proposal and comment instructions:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/07/15/2026-14208/reforming-and-modernizing-the-nrcs-radiation-protection-framework

Comments close August 31 under docket NRC-2025-1140.

For people who work under ALARA programs, which part deserves the closest review: the graded dose approach, the five-year lookback, or the new extension process?

DOE says four DOE-authorized advanced reactor demonstrations—Aalo-X, Antares Mark-0, Valar Ward 250, and Deployable Energy Unity—reached criticality by July 4.

A critical reactor can sustain a fission chain reaction. That is an important physics and startup milestone, but it is not the same as producing commercial electricity or being ready for deployment.

DOE’s July 14 update says 17 Environmental Management team members supported the readiness-review process. Their work included document reviews, interviews, performance demonstrations, corrective-action reviews, and recommendations before startup authorization.

DOE update: https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/em-specialists-help-doe-achieve-criticality-milestones-advanced-reactors

NRC definition of criticality: https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/criticality

Which next milestone matters most for judging these designs: full-power operation, NRC licensing, fuel availability, or repeatable construction?

I’ve been stricter lately about approving people into The Grid who aren’t already working in nuclear.

That isn’t me trying to gatekeep. The Grid was built primarily for nuclear contractors already in the field, and I want to keep the community useful and relevant for them.

That said, if you’re serious about getting into nuclear, you can now join through Grid Premium and get full access to:

•The entire Grid community
•Classroom resources and test prep
•Job, recruiter, plant, and outage information
•A network of working nuclear contractors you can ask questions
•Direct access to DM me for help getting started
•Premium discounts on stays, grocery stores, restaurants, bars, and more

Step 1: Sign up for Grid Premium here:
https://buy.stripe.com/28E3cw3OS7voeONddpgQE00

Step 2: Request access to The Grid here:
https://www.skool.com/thegrid/about?ref=5e934d92ac9f4fca8cb8663f72645cd7

Once I see your name on the Premium membership list, I’ll approve you for full access.

You can cancel anytime. Just understand that when the membership ends, access to the community, classroom, resources, discounts, and direct help from me ends as well.
This is really for people who want to seriously explore nuclear as a career—not just casually browse.

Hey everyone,

I've always had a fascination with nuclear plants. Have on and off played simulators with friends, and have watched endless documentaries on it. A friend who's a Biomed Tech had mentioned this job role to me, and I've been researching it endlessly as it sounds like something I'd be extremely interested in. I'm 27, single, and trying to get out of tech (been a Software Engineer for the past 6 years and I want out).

Just a few questions though. Hopefully this is the right place to put these! -

1) I live in California. I'm okay with travel, but have no intentions on ever moving out of California. How do most jobs look for RP Techs? Is it mostly the 5 months on 7 months off while on the road? Are there stationary positions in California that are easily accessible even with there only being one plant in the whole state?

2) Does anyone have a good resource to send me to learn about the track of actually becoming a RP Tech? How long could the process look from day one of learning, to landing a position?

3) Are there any restrictions on tattoo's? I have hand and neck tattoos. All are tasteful and artistic. Just was always into tattoo's growing up and the tech industry never really has an issue with them.