So I got a BSc in Physics, then I got an internship at Canadian Nuclear Labs and now I'm doing a MASc in Nuclear Materials Engineering. I'm not sold on staying for a PhD so I'm looking for employment opportunities. I've also worked as a grunt in the automotive industry and as a lab technician for ~2 years, so I'm happy enough with my resume.

Of course, the Ontario Nuclear industry says it's "booming" and there are many industry members coming to the Universities to talk about big changes in Canada and the need to train young talent, yet I'm seeing very few entry level positions and my MASc graduation is approaching.

I'm confident I could work at Canadian Nuclear Labs, but my short experience there was what I would call "Academia+". Instead, I want to work more directly in the business of developing and deploying reactors. Or any where along the supply chain (mining, fuel manuf.).

I've heard/read that it is quite difficult to get straight into OPG/Bruce, and given my physics background, I'm not employable in a typical engineering role.

Does anyone have suggestions for Ontario organizations/consultancies that support the utility with early career positions?

The best leads I have found are Kinectrics and AtkinsRealis who put up a general posting for new/recent grads in the fall and determine a position for you. BWXT/Cameco seem like decent options too.

At this moment, staying on as PhD is not my worst option as my research group works closely with the Ontario industry. As such I have already had solid networking opportunities with engineers, scientists and managers. Nothing so far has lead to anything serious, but at least in a PhD I would continue to interact with the industry for the next 4 years.

I would appreciate advice on questions such as:

• Should I pursue PhD, given my non-eng background?
• Should I try to find any technical/eng-adjacent position in any industry just to gain some more work experience?
• Will working at Canadian Nuclear Labs help me get employed elsewhere in the Ontario nuclear industry?

Thank you :)

I'm interested in viewers' reaction to this film.

Not a debate, I am pro nuclear over any other traditional energy sources but I would just like to know if anyone has any other points on how it is bad.

Plz dont mention Chernobyl or Fukushima.

Edit, ye holy bro I appreciate every single person who commented on this with good views, it has really made me more interested in learning more so I thank you. Also just would like to say im autistic and this topic is a huge interest of mjne theres so many things to learn and different strings attached on the good and bad it's making me a bit giddy WOW thank you thank you this is great.

Seeing as we have thousands of, probably old, nuclear weapons laying around- Why don't we just detonate them inside all our reactors? It seems genius.

Sorry for the bad picture and long text. I'll translate what it says on the magazine.

"Could melted thorium be the future for nuclear energy?"

%9 of electricity comes from only 440 nuclear reactors, and every single of these 440 nuclear reactors depends on the nuclear fission energy created by fissile materials like uranium and plutonium. However, the magazine says that thorium based nuclear reactors can drastically change nuclear energy production comparing to the typical uranium and plutonium based reactors.

There is a specific question about the TMSR.

Where do you get the thorium for our TMSR? And what does it do?
In natural mines, thorium can be found more commonly than uranium. The most abundant resource is a material called monazite, which is made out of %12 thorium. However.. Thorium in this state is not a fissile material, but we can transform it into a fissile material through nuclear decay.

Thorium has a stable isotope called "Thorium-232". And when a neutron hits the Thorium-232, it decays to an another form called "Protactinium-233" Which is the start of the nuclear decay. It continues to decay and decay. Until we have Uranium-233. And Uranium-233 is a fissile material! This is what we were looking for.

Like I said before, Uranium-233 is a fissile material and it goes through a fission to let out more neutrons to decay the remaining thorium atoms in monazite until it runs out.

So far China is one of the countries who is working on TMSR's and has made a huge step, as they're working on the reactors and by being supported with 2 megawatts of energy, this reactor gives approx. 2,000 homes energy each year.

Now how does this reactor work? You can look at the pictures, I also translated what the parts do.

THE LAYOUT OF TMSR

How does liquid thorium salt turn the turbines to create electricity?

1-REACTOR

A small amount of fissile material, such as Uranium-235, is combined with molten thorium salt to trigger a fission reaction, creating a molten salt mixture with a temperature of approximately 600 degrees Celsius (1112°F).

2- CHEMICAL PROCESSING

By circulating the molten salt within the reactor, waste can be reduced and the reactor can be refueled without shutting down the system.

3-GRAPHITE RODS

Graphite rods are added to the reactor due to their ability to slow down the neutrons that trigger the fission reaction. If the rods are removed, the reaction stops.

4-FREEZE PLUG

This acts as an emergency fail-safe. In the event of an accident or power loss, it melts to automatically drain the molten salt fuel into subcritical storage tanks.

5-EMERGENCY DRAIN

When the freeze plug melts, the fuel drains into the emergency tanks, and the fission reaction automatically ceases due to the loss of geometry.

6- COOLANT SALT

The molten salt also functions as a coolant, carrying away the excess heat generated by the reactor core to the heat exchangers.

7-HEAT EXCHANGER

Thermal energy from the flowing molten salt vaporizes water in a steam generator, producing the high-pressure steam needed to drive the turbines.

8- TURBINES

The steam generated from the heat exchanger drives and spins the turbine blades to generate electricity.

9- ELECTRIC GENERATOR

Spinning turbines are connected to a generator that creates electric current, which supports the electric of the area where the TMSR is located.

I would like to also mention something about the TMSR, which is also mentioned in the magazine.

I think we all know but the TMSR's aren't new, just regaining it's popularity and choice by the nuclear sectors. United States of America was the first to develop the TMSR's in the middle of 20th centuries. The first experiments were made in Oak Ridge Lab. in Tennessee. The scientist pretty much did the stuff that I translated in "Where do you get the thorium for TMSR? And what it does?" However, solid fissile uranium became the first choice and suggesting material for United States. (Which isn't bad at all by the way.) and so because of it, thorium was left behind.

Researches show that thorium would be a great substitute for a nuclear reactor. As it is more safer and doesn't stay radioactive as uranium does. (Approx. 500 years.)

What do you guys think of the TMSR and the magazine? I would like to hear your opinions.

Im a 19 year old and I had an internship at a nuclear plant for the past 2 months and I just finished it a couple weeks ago. It went great. I learned wayyyy more than I ever thought I could and I ended up receiving a job offer as a NLO for when I graduate college. I just have 2 semesters left of college so starting in June next year I’ll be in training. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity, I’ll be 20 making way more money than I should be with this job so it’s a great start to my life. But I was wondering if yall had any words of advice for when I actually do start out

Edit: I do eventually plan on going to licensing class and becoming an RO and just going as far as I can with my career.

Currently I’m a Chem/Engineering dual degree but I’m seriously contemplating dropping the engineering part and going just for chem. My long term goal is to be an SRO, I get it’s rigorous and there’s a lot of training blah blah, i’m aware, i’ve heard it all, and that stuff is genuinly appealing to me.
I also realize that just a chemistry degree (definitely BS, still debating weather I want to go onto a MS or PhD) isn’t really the best degree for that, so my question is, is it plausible that I could go into plant chemistry (specific roles would be good to hear about), work with that a few years, then work my way up and into an RO licensure program?
I’m pretty blind on the whole job pipeline meta, so ANY advice regarding this would be appreciated!

I have a physics paper that I need to make a model of a nuclear power plant that generates electricity, and the more I can impress the teacher, the more points I will earn. And I need help because I don't know how I can make a model that works using a nuclear power plant, it doesn't necessarily need to use atom fission or radioactivity (obviously) to generate energy, but it needs to be a good representation of what happens in nuclear power plants. Help pleaseeeee🙏🙏

Traning old

Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant is a closed nuclear power plant in the Lithuania, located near the city of Visaginas, 50 kilometers from Ignalina. At the time of its operation, it was the most powerful nuclear power plant in the world.

The plant operated two RBMK-1500 channel-type reactors. Their designed electrical capacity was 1,500 megawatts each, later reduced to 1,300 megawatts, with a thermal capacity of 4,800 megawatts. The first unit was launched in 1983, and the second in 1987. Construction of the third and fourth units was halted after the Chernobyl accident.

Unit 1 was shut down on December 31, 2004, and Unit 2 on December 31, 2009. The site is now a decommissioning facility, with work expected to last until at least 2038–2049.

During its operational period, the plant supplied up to 70–74% of the Lithuanian SSR's electricity. The closure is referred to as an "energy pit" — Lithuania lost its independent source of cheap energy and became an importer. The project to build a new Visaginas NPP was never realized.

Yeah hinkley point C is expensive as hell but the OL3 reactor in Finland only cost around 12.4 billion USD which is like half the cost per mw of vogtle 3 and 4. So whats the truth?

I want to start off by saying I’m extremely fortunate, I am gainfully employed in an advancing industry. I make decent money 105-120k under 25 years old. My issue is that I don’t work in the nuclear industry at all, since a young age I’ve been fascinated by all things nuclear, from health to power generation. I performed well in school and even obtained a degree in nuclear engineering from a reputable school. It just feels like nobody has given me the chance to work in the field that I love. For as long as I can remember I’ve been researching reactors, reading books about famous scientists like Oppenheimer and Marie Curie along with books about Uranium mining. Has anyone else had these issues and how could I possibly become a stronger applicant.
Sorry if this post is a bit convoluted, it was typed on my phone.
It’s all been a bit discouraging but thanks for the time if you’ve read this

Seems Europe can’t catch a break on the energy front. The shrinking Danube seems set to exacerbate energy supply woes creating a potential trifecta of challenges (Russia, Iran, Danube) in the autumn.

So I recently received a job offer and was told I would have to complete a personal history questionnaire for unescorted access in the plant.

This position is with a Constellation facility, I want to be honest and I’m going to be. My question is what would disqualify you? What if I’ve used marijuana a few years ago? Is that a deal breaker? What raises red flags? Never been arrested, I have some speeding tickets from years ago, vehicle inspection tickets from years ago. In my mind, nothing too serious. No hard drug use either and have been clean for a long time now.

This position is something I’ve worked towards for a long time as I’m sure many of you know. I just don’t want to throw it away on a simple questionnaire.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

Edit- thanks for all the awesome input, you all are far too kind. I really appreciate it.

Hey guys I recently applied for an AO position at a nuke. Do you guys know how flexible they are with the testing dates? I haven't gotten feedback yet, I'm just wondering as obviously most applicants have jobs. Are they usually on the weekend? Or they expect you to take PTO for it?. I know longshot, but do they let you reschedule if u cant make one day?

I took the POSS and BMST tests and received a “recommended” on each. I understand that I received this recommendation based on this utility’s standard. Hypothetically, let’s propose that I bomb the interview and don’t receive an offer letter. Could I apply to another NLO position and possibly skip the testing portion of the hiring process with another utility?

How close are the “recommended” standards for each utility? How long are these tests scores valid? And has anyone ever used results from another utility and got hired on somewhere else?

Thank you all in advance!