National Application Center :: career details :: Nuclear Equipment Operation Technicians
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Career Details :: Nuclear Equipment Operation Technicians
Description
Operate equipment used for the release, control, and utilization of nuclear energy to assist scientists in laboratory and production activities.
Experience
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree. Some may require a bachelor's degree.
Training
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers.
Tasks
- Sets control panel switches and activates equipment, such as nuclear reactor, particle accelerator, or gamma radiation equipment, according to specifications.
- Calculates equipment operating factors, such as radiation time, dosage, temperature, and pressure, using standard formulas and conversion tables.
- Monitors instruments, gauges, and recording devices in control room during operation of equipment, under direction of nuclear experimenter.
- Reviews experiment schedule to determine specifications, such as subatomic particle parameters, radiation time, dosage, and gamma intensity.
- Positions fuel elements in reactor or environmental chamber, according to specified configuration, using slave manipulators or extension tools.
- Installs instrumentation leads in reactor core to measure operating temperature and pressure according to mock-ups, blueprints, and diagrams.
- Modifies, devises, and maintains equipment used in operations.
- Disassembles, cleans, and decontaminates hot cells and reactor parts during maintenance shutdown, using slave manipulators, crane, and hand tools.
- Writes summary of activities or records experiment data in log for further analysis by engineers, scientists, or customers, or for future reference.
- Communicates with maintenance personnel to ensure readiness of support systems and to warn of radiation hazards.
- Tests physical, chemical, or metallurgical properties of experimental materials according to standardized procedures, using test equipment and measuring instruments.
- Withdraws radioactive sample for analysis, fills container with prescribed quantity of material for shipment, or removes spent fuel elements.
- Sets up and operates machines to saw fuel elements to size or to cut and polish test pieces, following blueprints and other specifications.
- Transfers experimental materials to and from specified containers and to tube, chamber, or tunnel, using slave manipulators or extension tools.
- Controls laboratory compounding equipment enclosed in protective hot cell to prepare radioisotopes and other radioactive materials.
- Adjusts controls of equipment to control particle beam, chain reaction, or radiation, according to specifications.
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Important Abilities
General Work Activities
- Monitor Processes, Material, Surroundings
- Controlling Machines and Processes
- Getting Information Needed to Do the Job
- Handling and Moving Objects
- Inspecting Equipment, Structures, Material
Important Skills
Frequent Work Context
- Consequence of Error
- Responsible for Others' Health & Safety
- Importance of Being Exact or Accurate
- Importance of Being Sure All Is Done
- Degree of Automation
