Posted: 5/15/2007 4:49:37 PM EDT
|
Hello I am going back to school. I have a Bachelors Degree in Electronics Engineering Technology. I am now taking classes to go back for a a degree in Electrical Engineering. I have to take the Calculus based physics sequence and Caclulus III before I can jump into the EE courses. The Calc and Physics is offered at the community college, this is where I am taking the classes at now. Now the University of Tennessee has a distance education graduate program in Nuclear Engineering. If I wrap up Calculus III and the Physics I can take one undergrad nuke E class and jump right into classes towards the MS Nuke E. I work at a scientific research lab, the group I work with does electronics for imaging neutron detecotrs. I enjoy nuclear science and I think it would help with my job. Are there any Nuke E's here? Do any of you work in the field of nuclear imaging? Where would the cross over be with electronics? In the detection and control aspect? |
|
Not exactly what you wanted, but I think Navy nukes are as close as you are going to get at the moment. Working on reactor plants and such. When I went through, GE had a few of their peope running through the prototype class with us for chemistry as I recall. I don' t think it was regular prototype because I remember being in a class room a lot, and we only did that for ELT stuff. As for nuke imaging, I guess I am only familar with 3 types. The guys that have the big sources that x-ray large chunkies of structures, electron microscopes and nuke med like MRI, CT and such. Is there a different type of imaging? None of which I think other than theory helps being familar with Nuke engineering, unless I miss understand that class name as well. WE did heat transfer, fluid flow theory, radiation and shielding, and chemistry in our classes. |
|
Many of our Nuclear Engineers were plant design engineers; a group that has been severely downsized. Our reactor engineering department is losing 1 of 4 within the next 3 months due to downsizing. If & when nuclear power makes a comeback, there may be new opportunities. Our company owns 9 of the 104 nuke plants in the US & there are some signs of new life coming. Mostly based on GE's new plant design which is much simpler than existing designs - meaning fewer people to engineer & run them. My suggestion would be nuclear medicine - one of th fastest growing segments of an exploding industry. Baby boomers will drive it beyond any expectations. |
No Nuke E's in 15 minutes? What is the world coming to?  Navy knuke here, secondary steam plant chemist only. I wouldn't bet my future on a degree in nuclear power - too specialized a degree. That is a feild subject to feast or famine. Be a Wendy's night manager flippin' burgers or earn 6 figures. |
Such as GE's new ABWRs at Bellefonte? Let's hope. |
|
I'm not an engineer, but I work in Radiological Emergency Protection (REP). I'd say it's a field which has some potential. It seems like someone in power generaration or health physicis is retiring every day, and a lot of the "old timers" I talk to say the demand is growing due to retirement attrition. As much as I'd like to get into engineering, I think I've missed the bus on that career path (I was in law enforcement for 20 years before I came to REP) but I am seriously looking into going back to school for a Health Physics degree. It's my percption that the nuclear industry is growing very, very slowly, but certainly is stable. There is simply too much money to be made. While some older gen-1 BWR reactors are being decommissioned, newer BWR and PWR reactors are being upgraded for better production & efficiency, and we're seeing 20-year license renewals nationwide. New plant construction in the next 10 years is a real possibility...although what they are going to be building is kind of open to speculation. Currently the NRC will only license PWR and BWR designs. |
|
another navy nuke here. i can't imagine you being able to compete with any nukes getting out of the navy in the nuclear job market, personally. intense training, intense practical experience, already have security clearance.... why would anyone wanna hire someone out of college with no experience to do something tons of people hitting the job market have already proven they're more than capable of doing for such a critical occupation? you'll never get the respect someone who's spent every other minute of every day 6 months out of a year walking back and forth from the aft planes manual actuators to the fuel oil station, blindfolded, jacking up O2 on the cam's to stay awake, stariing at manuals while performing valve lineups thousands of times, memorized....port and starboard ERS watch nightmares... blah, just go civil, is what im saying!! |
|
Ex Navy Nuke here as well and ex civilian nuke operator (Big Rock Point in MI). We had a few nuclear engineers at BRP who characterized the reactor fuel load, helped immensely with dry fuel storage, stuff like that. I made more money than they did as an ex navy nuke/operator. They knew more about some aspects of the reactor than I did but I had a more overall view of plant operations and have since moved on to a coal plant with no transition pains what so ever. I think the engineers all transfered to other nuke plants or retired. It's too specialized as someone else stated. Lot's of work in the medical field though and rad pro as well (for now). Of course you could also put that nuclear degree to work at a particle accelerator or something else even more specialized and spend 30 years there. And maybe nuclear power will make a comeback and you'll be in high demand making $150,000+ per year. Digest that for a few days if you want. Hope it helps. |
|
This is good news: Browns Ferry 1 OK for restart Wednesday, May 16, 2007 By BRIAN LAWSON Times Business Writer [email protected] NRC offers its approval; TVA set to test reactor The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given the Tennessee Valley Authority approval to restart its Unit 1 nuclear reactor at Browns Ferry near Athens, marking the successful completion of a five-year $1.8 billion effort. The NRC signaled its formal support for the restart Tuesday in a letter to TVA, following a request Saturday for the approval. "We're very, very pleased," said Craig Beasley, spokesman for Browns Ferry. "It's a good feeling to have NRC concurrence, saying that our programs and our people and everything else is ready to move forward." Beasley said TVA will conduct a number of tests and calibrations on the reactor, but the goal is to have a critical nuclear reaction in Unit 1 this month, as called for by the TVA board in May 2002. The utility will increase power and test its systems over a number of weeks to determine if the reactor is ready to run full time. "TVA has completed an extensive refurbishment of Unit 1 and the NRC staff has closely monitored their progress throughout the project," said NRC Region II Deputy Regional Administrator for Operations Victor McCree in a news release. McCree had final say in whether the reactor would be approved for restart. "It is now up to us to complete these prerequisites well, to do the startup safely and event free," Beasley said. "Consequently we will be very deliberate and methodical; if we need to pause, we will." The Unit 1 reactor has been dormant since 1985, when it was shut down for safety reasons. At full power the reactor could produce 1,155 megawatts, enough to light 650,000 homes. The restart effort has a $1.8 billion price tag, which TVA paid out of its regular budget. The startup included an engineering team led by Bechtel Engineering Corp., which employed at its peak some 523 engineers and totaled 4 million man hours. Stone and Webster Construction Inc. oversaw the plant modification work. At its peak, that work employed 2,400 skilled craft and support workers and totaled 15.2 million man hours, Beasley said. The utility said its successful return to service of Browns Ferry units 2 and 3 in the 1990s helped set a template for the restart process for Unit 1. While the units are similar, Unit 1's restart 22 years after its shutdown marks the longest period in U.S. history a nuclear reactor has been dormant before returning to service. Huntsville Slime article |
I am not really interested in power, I am interested in Nuclear Imaging. Imaging detectors to be specific. I have been ruined by the normal quick response on AR15.com, sorry for the haste. Do you have a BS or MS in nuclear engineering? |