Job Title: Senior Reactor Systems Engineer (Severe Accident/Source Terms)

Background

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proud to be ranked as a BEST Place to Work in the Federal Government. We've earned our top ratings by creating a work environment rich in opportunity, diversity, leadership training, teamwork, and work life balance. Help guide our nation into the next generation of nuclear safety! Begin a challenging career with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission where you can be part of a select group of professionals who protect people and the environment with the peaceful use of nuclear materials in medicine, industry and research.

Duties

This position is located in Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES), Division of Systems Analysis (DSA), Fuel and Source Term Code Development Branch (FSCB) Rockville, MD.

As a Senior Reactor Systems Engineer (Severe Accident/Source Terms), you will conduct and coordinate highly specialized research and analysis of severe accidents and source terms in nuclear power plants. Duties include but are not limited to:

1. Maintains state-of-the-art knowledge and expertise in the area of severe accident phenomenology (e.g., in-vessel melt progression, molten core concrete interaction, fission products release, transport and behavior) and source term (synthesis of a design basis source terms) and associated analytical code development.
2. Maintains and develops the NRC severe accident codes, such as MELCOR, TEXAS, CORQUENCH, MELTSPREAD, to meet emerging needs introduced by evolutionary zirconium/UO2 designs (i.e., fuel dopants), accident tolerant fuel (ATF) and non-LWR advanced reactor designs resulting in the change of severe accident progression and design basis source terms, transportation of fresh fuel, storage and transportation of spent nuclear fuel, and fuel cycles. Develops and implements a long-term strategy to maintain state-of-practice analytical capabilities.
3. Develops plans and objectives for analytic and experimental research programs. Based on knowledge and analysis of the issues, determines the overall feasibility and desirability of undertaking short and long range analytical and experimental research. Provides technical justification for such research.
4. Provides technical direction to contractors involved in severe accident phenomenological research.
5. Develops and implements solutions to User Need Requests and other emerging issues pertaining to the area of severe accident and design basis source terms (reactor operations, storage and transportation of spent nuclear fuel and fuel cycle).
6. Interfaces with domestic and international research organizations (e.g., the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Nuclear Energy Agency, Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN)) to facilitate timely integration of available severe accident and neutronics models that emerge from severe accident and neutronics research and development.

This position has Contracting Officer's Representative duties that may subject the incumbent to the confidential financial disclosure reporting requirements and this position is subject to the security ownership restriction reporting requirements.

Qualifications

In order to qualify for this position, you must have at least one year of specialized experience at the next lower grade level (14) in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE is defined as experience which provides knowledge of modeling approaches related to severe accidents and source terms. Examples may include, but are not limited to experience in the development and use of severe accidents and source terms computer codes and/or experience supporting the resolution of relevant severe accidents and source terms technical issues related to operating Light Water Reactors (LWRs), accident tolerant fuel, spent fuel pool, spent fuel casks, or non-LWR advanced reactor designs.

The ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate the following:

1. Demonstrated knowledge of engineering principles and mathematical methods for severe accident phenomena, source terms, and nuclear reactor design and analysis associated with light water reactor (LWR), spent fuel pool, spent fuel casks system, accident tolerant fuel (ATF), and non-light water advanced reactor designs.
Examples may include specific experience and accomplishments which demonstrate your knowledge of mathematical and experimental methods for severe accident phenomena, source terms, and nuclear reactor design and analysis associated with light water reactor (LWR), spent fuel pool, spent fuel casks system, accident tolerant fuel (ATF), and non-light water advanced reactor designs.
2. Demonstrated knowledge of the design and development of severe accident and source terms codes (e.g., MELCOR, TEXAS, CORQUENCH, MELTSPREAD).
Examples may include specific experience and accomplishments which demonstrate your knowledge of the design and development of severe accident and source terms codes (e.g., MELCOR, TEXAS, CORQUENCH, MELTSPREAD). Examples may also include experience in analyzing severe accident and source terms codes for accuracy and reliability and experience which demonstrate your knowledge in computer code confirmatory analyses of severe accident phenomena (e.g., in-vessel melt progression, combustible gas behavior, fuel coolant interaction, molten core concrete interaction, etc.,) and the use of confirmatory analyses in the development of design basis source terms to support risk-informing and resolution of relevant safety and technical issues.
3. Demonstrated ability to independently coordinate, plan, develop, and provide technical oversight and direction of analytical and experimental research programs or projects.
Examples may include specific experience and accomplishments which demonstrate your ability to independently coordinate, plan, develop, and provide technical oversight and direction for analytical and experimental research programs or projects. Examples may include experience in reviewing, coordinating, and managing the activities of an analytical and experimental research program within schedule and resource limitations, in evaluating varied proposals and approaches to meet a program or project’s challenges, and recommending and implementing changes for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of a program or project.
4. Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate technical information both orally and in writing.
Examples may include specific experience and accomplishments that demonstrate your ability to effectively communicate technical information both orally and in writing. Examples may also include leading complex technical discussions, consolidating complex and diverse opinions, data, or analysis results into concise, balanced and well-founded recommendations and producing high quality technical reports to diverse stakeholders.
5. Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain effective work relationships with management and staff, coworkers, and personnel of external organizations.
Examples may include specific experience and accomplishments that demonstrate your ability to establish and maintain effective work relationships with management and staff, coworkers, and personnel of external organizations. Examples may also include experience using tact, diplomacy, and negotiation to achieve cooperation and develop consensus, experience using informal and formal networks to build support for programs and serving as a point of contact with other organizations , industry, advisory groups, international organizations, or other stakeholders to provide advice and recommendations on research areas and initiatives to enhance regulatory effectiveness and efficiency.

A description of how you possess the specialized experience as well as how you meet the qualifications desired in an ideal candidate should be addressed in your resume and additional space provided for supplemental response.

Education

Qualification for All Professional Engineering 0800 Series:
Basic Requirements:
1. Degree: Engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor’s degree in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by ABET; or (2) include differential and integral calculus and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in five of the following seven areas of engineering science or physics: (a) statics, dynamics; (b) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (c) fluid mechanics, hydraulics; (d) thermodynamics; (e) electrical fields and circuits; (f) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); and (g) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics.
OR
1. Combination of education and experience -- college-level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering. The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following:
2. Professional registration or licensure -- Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT)1, or licensure as a Professional Engineer (PE) by any State, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico. Absent other means of qualifying under this standard, those applicants who achieved such registration by means other than written test (e.g., State grandfather or eminence provisions) are eligible only for positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of their registration. For example, an applicant who attains registration through a State Board's eminence provision as a manufacturing engineer typically would be rated eligible only for manufacturing engineering positions.
3. Written Test -- Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE)2 examination or any other written test required for professional registration by an engineering licensure board in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
4. Specified academic courses -- Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and that included the courses specified in the basic requirements under paragraph A. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A.
5. Related curriculum -- Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in an appropriate scientific field, e.g., engineering technology, physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a bachelor’s degree in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance. Ordinarily there should be either an established plan of intensive training to develop professional engineering competence, or several years of prior professional engineering-type experience, e.g., in interdisciplinary positions. (The above examples of related curricula are not all-inclusive.)

How to Apply

Visit www.nrc.gov Review the NRC Opportunities page and click on “view a list of current NRC vacancies, please visit USAJobs EXIT.” Find the Senior Reactor Systems Engineer (Severe Accident/Source Terms) Job Announcement Number RES/DSA-2020-0012
and apply on-line by October 15, 2020. If you are viewing this opportunity after October 15th please visit NRC’s website and discover additional opportunities for which you might be interested.