Principal Reactor Fuel Engineer

Oak Ridge, TN | $150K–$170K | Relocation Available

Shape the Statistical Foundation for Advanced Nuclear Fuel Qualification

If your expertise sits at the intersection of statistics, uncertainty quantification, materials qualification, and safety-critical engineering, this role offers the opportunity to apply it to a next-generation nuclear fuel program.

NANO Nuclear Energy is seeking a Principal Reactor Fuel Engineer to establish the statistical and uncertainty-quantification framework supporting qualification of the ceramic matrix TRISO fuel architecture for the KRONOS High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR).

The Opportunity

Reporting to the Reactor Fuel Design Manager, you’ll have broad technical ownership for ensuring that fuel qualification decisions—from sampling plans and defect fractions to manufacturing demonstrations and model validation—are supported by defensible statistical methods, confidence levels, and uncertainty treatment.

You’ll work across fuel design, manufacturing, characterization, irradiation, post-irradiation examination (PIE), safety analysis, fuel-performance modeling, Quality Assurance, and Regulatory & Licensing, providing independent statistical concurrence on qualification-critical decisions.

Why This Opportunity Stands Out

• Own the statistical strategy supporting qualification of an advanced TRISO fuel architecture.
• Influence decisions spanning fuel development, manufacturing, testing, modeling, safety, and licensing.
• Establish statistical approaches before data collection, rather than simply analyzing completed datasets.
• Apply advanced methods to challenging sparse, censored, zero-failure, and heterogeneous datasets.
• Provide independent technical concurrence on qualification and regulator-facing conclusions.
• Build technical leadership while collaborating across a multidisciplinary reactor development organization.

What You’ll Do

• Develop and maintain the KRONOS Fuel Qualification Statistics and Uncertainty Quantification Plan, including confidence requirements, acceptance probabilities, decision rules, and concurrence points.
• Establish defensible sample sizes and population definitions for kernels, TRISO particles, ceramic pellets, manufacturing lots, irradiation specimens, PIE populations, and safety-test specimens.
• Develop methods for estimating defect, particle-failure, fuel-failure, and fission-product-release fractions, including zero-failure and censored datasets.
• Establish uncertainty budgets covering characterization, irradiation conditions, PIE measurements, material properties, safety testing, and derived qualification parameters.
• Define statistical requirements for model calibration and validation, bias evaluation, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty propagation, applicability limits, and experimental comparison.
• Develop design-of-experiments, process-capability, variability, sampling, and acceptance methods supporting repeatable production-intent fuel.
• Evaluate data exclusions, outliers, missing data, anomalous observations, and extrapolations.
• Author clear statistical conclusions and uncertainty statements supporting fuel qualification and licensing documentation.

What You’ll Bring

Required

• Advanced degree in Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Reliability Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, Materials Science, or a closely related quantitative discipline.
• 5+ years supporting nuclear fuel, materials qualification, reliability, manufacturing qualification, model validation, or another safety-critical technical program.
• Expertise in design of experiments, acceptance sampling, uncertainty propagation, reliability methods, statistical inference, and model calibration or validation.
• Experience developing statistical approaches before data collection and working with sparse, censored, zero-failure, or heterogeneous datasets.
• Proficiency with controlled statistical-computing workflows and rigorous documentation of calculations, software, data transformations, assumptions, and independent reviews.
• Strong technical writing and communication skills, including the ability to translate statistical limitations into clear engineering, safety, and regulatory conclusions.

Preferred

• Direct experience with TRISO, advanced nuclear fuel, or high-temperature ceramic qualification.
• Experience estimating low-probability defect or failure fractions at regulator-relevant confidence levels.
• Familiarity with ASME NQA-1, nuclear software QA, configuration control, and regulator-facing technical reports.
• Experience integrating manufacturing process capability, experimental uncertainty, and model-form uncertainty into qualification decisions.

Compensation & Benefits

• $150,000–$170,000 base salary
• Relocation available to Oak Ridge, TN
• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance with company contributions
• 401(k) with 5% company match
• Unlimited PTO
• Company holidays and paid parental leave
• Mentorship, professional growth, and technical leadership opportunities
• Collaborative engineering environment focused on innovation and technical excellence

Interested?

If you have deep expertise in statistics, uncertainty quantification, reliability, or materials qualification and want to apply it to one of the most technically consequential areas of advanced nuclear development, we’d welcome the opportunity to speak with you.

Apply Now to learn more about the role, the KRONOS fuel qualification program, and the impact you could have on its development.

NANO Nuclear Energy is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to apply