Nuclear Engineer Job Description

A nuclear engineer in the energy business is the person who proves, on paper and in software, that a reactor and everything around it will behave the way its license says it will. The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the occupation as researching and developing projects, or solving problems, tied to the release, control and use of nuclear energy and to nuclear waste disposal. Its duty list covers designing reactor cores, nuclear batteries and radiation shielding, testing methods for managing nuclear material or reclaiming fuel, writing instructions for operating plants, and monitoring design, construction and operation practices for compliance with state and federal rules.

BLS counted about 16,600 nuclear engineering jobs in 2025. The largest employer groups it lists are nuclear electric power generation at 21%, scientific research and development services at 20%, the federal government at 17% and engineering services at 15%. That spread means the job looks different from one employer to the next. One engineer sits in a plant engineering building running reload calculations for the next core; another works at a national laboratory on a fuel form that has never been licensed; a third works for a design firm assembling a license application for a client.

At an operating plant, the work tracks the plant's own rhythm. Ahead of each refueling outage, reactor engineers build the core model for the coming cycle in codes such as CASMO and SIMULATE, check shutdown margin and peaking factors, and hand operations a set of physics test predictions to compare against startup data. During the outage they review work orders for impact on the design basis, write post-maintenance test acceptance criteria and answer field questions on short notice. Between outages they own trending, corrective action evaluations and the long tail of licensing correspondence.

Much of that licensing work runs through 10 CFR 50.59. Under that rule a licensee may change the facility or its procedures as described in the updated final safety analysis report, or run tests and experiments not described there, without a license amendment, but only if the change clears the rule's criteria. Engineers write the screenings and evaluations that make that call, and inspectors read them.

Outside the utility, the BLS profile lists defense work on naval propulsion systems and weapons readiness and storage, medical work on dose and shielding calculations for isotope production, research and regulatory work that analyzes accident data and helps draft new standards, and space work designing nuclear batteries and spacecraft shielding. The common thread is a calculation package someone else must be able to check: assumptions stated, inputs traced, code versions recorded, results bounded. BLS notes that these engineers typically work in offices, often at a computer, and collaborate with mechanical and electrical engineers to fit other systems into their designs.

Education

As a rough guide, the entry ticket is a bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering, or a degree in mechanical, chemical or electrical engineering or physics paired with reactor physics, heat transfer and radiation coursework. BLS lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry-level education and notes that some research and development jobs require a master's degree or a Ph.D. Some universities run five-year programs that end in both a bachelor's and a master's, and co-op or internship terms at a utility or national laboratory give students their first look at controlled calculation practice.

Training on the job

New hires at a power plant complete onsite training on safety procedures, practices and regulations, and BLS notes that nuclear engineers retrain every year to stay current on laws, rules and safety procedures. Plants also run their own engineering qualification programs, so expect to sign off on qualification cards before you can perform or independently review a 50.59 evaluation, a reload analysis or an operability determination. As a rough guide, independent reviewer status takes several years of supervised work.

Licenses, clearances and credentials

• Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, administered by NCEES, the usual first step toward licensure
• Professional Engineer (PE) license, issued by each state's engineering licensing board after the PE exam and qualifying experience; BLS says licensure is not required for entry-level nuclear engineer positions
• Q access authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy for jobs that need access to Restricted Data and other classified information

Technical toolkit

• Neutronics and depletion: MCNP, Serpent, SCALE, CASMO and SIMULATE
• Thermal-hydraulics and transient analysis: RELAP5, TRACE and GOTHIC
• Probabilistic risk assessment: fault trees, event trees and tools such as CAFTA and SAPHIRE
• Codes and standards: ASME Section III for pressure-retaining components, plus the plant's quality assurance program and software quality procedures
• Programming: BLS lists a working knowledge of programming languages and computer systems among the core qualities

Military path

BLS notes that some nuclear engineers train in the military and that related military experience may help with a move to civilian work. Naval nuclear training covers procedure compliance, watchstanding and plant operation from the instruments.

What separates strong candidates

Clear technical writing, a habit of documenting assumptions before running a case, and comfort defending a conclusion to an independent reviewer who is paid to find its weak point. A calculation package stays in the plant's records long after its author moves on, so write it for the next reader.

The federal projection and the federal policy push point in different directions, and anyone weighing this career should read both.

BLS projects little or no change in nuclear engineer employment from 2025 to 2035, a 0% rate. It still expects about 800 openings a year on average across the decade, most of them from the need to replace engineers who retire or move into other occupations. The Handbook explains the flat number by pointing to the focus on renewable energy and the limited construction of new nuclear plants, while noting that engineers will still be needed to oversee and maintain operations at existing plants. BLS last modified the profile on August 27, 2026, and it does not project the policy targets below as jobs.

Policy. Executive Order 14300, signed May 23, 2025, set a goal of expanding U.S. nuclear capacity from approximately 100 GW in 2024 to 400 GW by 2050. It told the NRC to set fixed review deadlines, including no more than 18 months for a final decision on an application to construct and operate a new reactor and no more than 1 year for a decision on an application to keep an existing reactor running. It also ordered the NRC to finish a wholesale revision of its regulations and guidance, with final rules within 18 months of the order, and listed among its policy aims to employ emerging technologies to safely accelerate the modeling, simulation, testing and approval of new reactor designs. An executive order sets direction; capacity actually built depends on financing, construction and licensing, none of which an order guarantees.

Licensing framework. The NRC published 10 CFR Part 53 as a final rule on March 30, 2026, and it took effect April 29, 2026. Written in response to the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act, it adds a risk-informed, performance-based and technology-inclusive framework for commercial nuclear plants. The rule's own summary notes that the older application and licensing requirements were primarily developed for light water-cooled reactors. The rule's analysis expects benefits from incorporating advances in probabilistic risk assessment and other risk-informed analyses into the regulatory framework, which puts PRA modeling and design-specific safety cases on the desks of engineers preparing applications under the new part.

Pipeline. According to the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, the number of students graduating with bachelor's degrees in nuclear engineering in the U.S. fell by 25% between 2012 and 2022, and the class of 2022 had only 454 graduates. ORISE's 2021-2022 survey, which reports degrees for the academic years ending in August 2021 and August 2022, covered thirty-five nuclear academic programs, and it noted that two schools, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Maine, had phased out or were phasing out their programs.

Where the jobs sit. Utility engineering departments carry the steady load: reload design, plant modifications, license renewal and power uprate work. National laboratories and the federal government carry research, regulation and defense programs. Engineering services firms and reactor developers carry design and licensing packages for clients and for their own reactor concepts. The job titles differ across those settings, from reactor engineer and fuel engineer to licensing engineer and PRA analyst, but the core product is the same: a reviewed calculation that a regulator, an owner or a review board can rely on.

Dear Hiring Manager,

I am applying for the Nuclear Engineer opening in the Reactor Engineering group at Cedar Ridge Generating Station. I have spent five years at a two-unit pressurized water reactor site, first in system engineering and for the last three years in reactor engineering, where I am qualified to perform and independently review core reload checks and 50.59 screenings.

In my current role I build the cycle-specific core model in CASMO and SIMULATE each spring, then compare predicted and measured startup physics data with the operations crew after refueling. On our last cycle I traced a small boron concentration bias to an outdated cross-section library in one of our scripts, documented the fix through the corrective action program and updated the software quality record so the next engineer would not repeat the hunt.

During outages I staff the engineering desk and handle work order reviews. Last spring I wrote the evaluation for a temporary shielding package on a steam generator platform, coordinated the dose estimate with radiation protection and turned the package around within one shift. I also wrote two 50.59 evaluations for instrument setpoint changes, both of which passed our onsite review committee without rework.

I hold a PE license in my state and a master's degree in nuclear engineering earned part time while working. I am drawn to Cedar Ridge because your team is preparing a power uprate, and I want to apply my core design experience to a project that will run for several years.

I would welcome the chance to walk through one of my calculation packages with your team.

Sincerely, Jordan Ellison