r/NuclearPower

New study reveals that cosmic ray exposure to pilots and flight attendants poses more risk of cancer than radiation to nuclear workers or x-ray technicians. Article has a really great dose infographic from XKCD.

Was cool to see this in the local paper. The reactors in question are SMRs, but it would be neat to see nuclear power in some capacity back in SoCal after the closure of SONGS.

Excerpt: The Philippine economy grew at its slowest pace in five years, expanding just 2.8 percent in the first quarter of 2026, as the country grapples with the persistent government spending slump and mounting inflation shocks.

The country’s economy, as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP), decelerated from the 3.0 percent expansion recorded in the final three months of 2025.

It also significantly missed the 3.4 percent median growth projected by economists in a survey, and marked the weakest quarterly output for the country since the first quarter of 2021, when the economy contracted 3.8 percent during pandemic-era lockdowns.

Please redirect me if there is somewhere else I should be asking this.

Could anyone tell me a little more about their role? I’m a bit confused if it’s more of the consulting realm or something else.

I ask because i chosen for a final in person interview for a mechanical engineer role. I have an aerospace engineering background with a couple years as a mechanical design engineer. I’ll say my role is not very technical in an analysis, gear sizing, structures hand calc kind of way and more supporting the program + modeling/drafting.

The process kind of just went from application to being asked when I can make it on site. So I’m just trying to figure out more and make sure I don’t waste my time in case they made some assumptions from my resume (analytical expertise) where not having would disqualify me from the role.

I am sure this has been asked before, but could you answer it again?

I see the plasma is confined in a circular high electron device that is surrounded by a metal thing that is also kept at 5 degrees kelvin. And I never see how the heat from the plasma is being transferred from the to a source of water which will spin a turbine

Genuine question for anyone who works at Bruce Power or in the nuclear industry.

Why is there such a large pay difference between skilled trades workers and nuclear operators when the trades require a pretty significant amount of training and experience themselves?

For example, a Red Seal plumber or electrician goes through roughly 9000 hours of on the-job training, along with three terms of schooling consisting of 8 weeks for each. That's years of apprenticeship, thousands of hours in the field, technical exams, safety training, and eventually a Red Seal certification.

Tradespeople at a nuclear facility are also working in an extremely regulated environment where the quality of their work can directly affect the safety and reliability of the plant. They're dealing with complex systems, strict procedures, radiation-controlled areas, confined spaces, high-pressure systems, electrical equipment, and a lot of responsibility.

I'm not saying nuclear operators shouldn't be paid well—they absolutely should. I'm more curious about why the compensation gap is so large between operators and skilled trades when trades people also have years of training and carry a significant amount of responsibility.

Is it mainly because of the additional licensing/training required to become an operator, the level of responsibility for operating the reactor, the labour market, or simply how the different positions are valued under the collective agreements?

It is abundantly clear that building and operating nuclear power plants is by far more difficult than building and operating any other power source.

Building and operating nuclear power plants need an army of highly specialized scientists, engineers and technicians. No other source of power comes close to that.

And then there is the safety aspect of it. It doesn't matter how safe the designs or operations are, there is still an intrinsic risk associated with these projects. There is a lot of things that can wrong, and when they do go wrong there will be extreme consequences.

This is on top of all that political and community backlash for such projects.

Now compare that with solar and BESS. These are orders of magnitude easier to build and operate with no need for that high technical or scientific specialization that nuclear requires.

Cost is also incomparable. It differs wildly by country and region, but it is consistent across almost all places that solar alone is 4-6 times cheaper than nuclear. Solar + BESS is also consistently cheaper than nuclear but not by a significant margin.

Let us take one case study. The Barakah Nuclear Plant in the UAE. Estimates put their LCOE somewhere around $70-100/MWh. Their LCOE is lower than many other places due to the plant being relatively new (2010s).

But their Al-Dhafra Solar PV has a LCOE at just $13/MWh! No good sources for their BESS projects but the figures will not be crazy high. Same goes across the countries in the region which have tens of different projects that have more or less similar LCOE.

China also doesn't make sense. Because they have an even cheaper LCOE for solar and BESS but they are also aggressively building nuclear power plants nationwide.

It could be said that solar is not good for all places. But building them in the right place and then transmit the power through long distance high voltage transmission lines will still be cheaper than nuclear.

It could be said that nuclear is a base electricity source that runs 24/7 and provides inertia. But these can be figured out with the right designs and protocols using solar and BESS.

Therefore, what is the world even doing here with nuclear? Shouldn't it be outdated at this point and replaced with solar and BESS?

Delete if not the right place for this. Sorry in advance if so.

So I have a lot of questions for people within the Nuclear Power system. I am looking to have a possible career change. I am thinking of going to college for an Associate Degree with a focus on Nonlicensed Operator. I have googled, googled, and googled but I still have questions I believe others could help answer. I am in the US. One question I have is the actual pay for a starting NLO. Anyone that is willing to answer questions it will be greatly appreciated.

Plants that were designed as baseload are getting two-shifted or load-followed more than the original spec assumed. The pressure parts usually survive that. The demountable joints are what I see give up first.

A few things that show up after a few dozen thermal cycles:

- Bolt, flange, and body don't grow the same. The preload you put on cold is not the preload you have at temperature, and it is not the preload you have after cooldown either.

- Bolts relax. Especially if they were close to yield at assembly, or if the joint sits hot for a long hold. Next cooldown, the face has less squeeze than you think.

- A joint that was dry on a cold hydro can still weep once it's hot. Ambient leak-tight is not the same test as service temperature. If you only check it cold, you have not qualified the hot joint.

- Cycled joints look different at outage than joints that sat. Witness marks, weep stains below the split line, bolts that take a different torque the second time.

For people who have actually walked a cycling unit: what is your first-to-leak component on a two-shift schedule, and do you re-torque hot or just live with a known weeper until the outage?

Could river-current energy be integrated with the electricity demands of uranium enrichment to improve the overall energy efficiency of the process?

I am wondering both how long the time period is in which a VVER-440 uses the external power grid for electricity after the reactors first start, and how long the then initiated process takes; from start to finish when the reactor is finally reliant on the electricity it itself produces.

I’m currently majoring in nuclear engineering in South Korea. However, I’ve recently developed a goal of finding a job in the U.S. and eventually obtaining a green card.

So, I’m trying to decide between two options: graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Korea and then pursuing a master’s degree in the U.S., or transferring to a U.S. university as an undergraduate and completing my bachelor’s degree there.

I’m also wondering how many job opportunities there are for international students or foreign nationals in the nuclear energy sector in the U.S. In particular, I’d like to know how difficult it is for a foreigner to find a job in the U.S. nuclear industry and eventually obtain permanent residency.

I’ve noticed that it kinda is becoming a thing again, after doing some research I’ve found out that they wanna power AI Data Centers with it. I would like to know if this is probably the reason or if it’s just me lol