Nuclear Fuel Cycle Chemical Engineer

Requisition Id 12729 

As a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science national laboratory, ORNL has an extraordinary 80-year history of solving the nation’s biggest problems. We have a dedicated and creative staff of over 6,000 people! Our vision for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) is to cultivate an environment and practices that foster diversity in ideas and in the people across the organization, as well as to ensure ORNL is recognized as a workplace of choice. These elements are critical for enabling the execution of ORNL’s broader mission to accelerate scientific discoveries and their translation into energy, environment, and security solutions for the nation.  

Overview:

The Advanced Engineering Technologies (AET) Group is seeking a dedicated Nuclear Fuel Cycle Chemical Engineer to support our organization! The position will involve system architecture, design, implementation, and testing including hands on work in a research and development atmosphere. Projects will target development of lab scale to pilot plant sized nuclear fuel cycle unit operations and processes. This is a mixed role where our new hire is expected to drive design and testing of unique unit operations. AET resides within the Nuclear Nonproliferation Division (NND) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

The NND is a division operating within the National Security Sciences Directorate. NND staff contribute world class research, technology development, risk assessment, and systems analysis related to nonproliferation and counterproliferation. The division activities play a crucial role in implementation of national policy issues that strive to ensure global nuclear security.  One of the major focus areas of the AET group is development of sophisticated approaches to operation, characterization, and analysis of nuclear fuel cycle processes. The group specializes in the application of engineering principles supporting the characterization of processes and related materials. The AET group collaborates and works with staff from other groups within NND and ORNL to assure the full expertise of fuel processes are applied to meet sponsor needs.  

Major Duties / Responsibilities: 

Our engineer, in collaboration with principal investigators and project management at ORNL, will participate in design, fabrication, assembly, and operation of nuclear fuel cycle unit operations and processes. You will be involved in projects that will design, build, test, and commission new systems. In addition to these responsibilities, you will contribute to R&D projects that involve nuclear processes.  In this position the candidate will be expected to optimally interact with various ORNL staff as well as internal and external sponsors. The candidate is expected to collaborate in a team environment with co-workers and management as well as independently; to fully document work performed in the forms of technical reports, papers, and presentations; and to participate in the development of research proposals. Excellent interpersonal skills including verbal, presentation, and writing skills are required. The successful candidate will work with principal investigators, management, engineers, fabricators, modelers, and test campaign personnel. 

Required Qualifications: 

• A B.S. in Chemical Engineering or related field, and a minimum of 5 years related experience; or an M.S. in Chemical Engineering, and a minimum of 4 years related experience or related field 
• Proven communication skills 
• Ability to work flexible hours and travel 
• Demonstrated expertise in chemical engineering design process to include developing the following products: 
• System Requirements Documents 
• Process Flow Diagrams 
• Material and Energy Balances 
• Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams 
• Design Analysis Calculations 
• Specification Sheets 
• Control System Narratives 
• Safety Basis Analysis and Documentation 
• Proven Unit Operation Specification and Design 
• Experience in an R&D and/or testing environment 

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Demonstrated experience in multiple nuclear fuel cycle chemical engineering operations 
• Intimate knowledge of uranium chemistry processes used in the nuclear fuel cycle 
• Demonstrated expertise in chemical engineering testing process to include: 
• Development and Execution of Experimental Plans 
• Post Experiment Analysis and Documentation 
• Test Equipment I/O Calibration 
• Expertise in Matlab and/or Python programming 
• Q Clearance 
• TS/SCI Clearance 

Special Requirements: 

Q/L Clearance: 

• This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a clearance from the Department of Energy. As such, this position is a Workplace Substance Abuse (WSAP) testing designated position. WSAP positions require passing a pre-placement drug test and participation in an ongoing random drug testing program. 

SCI: 

• This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a Secret Compartmental Investigation (SCI) clearance from the Department of Energy. As such, this position is a Workplace Substance Abuse (WSAP) testing designated position. WSAP positions require passing a pre-placement drug test and participation in an ongoing random drug testing program. In addition, due the SCI, you may also be subject to random polygraph testing. 

This position is a full-time staff position. 

Technical questions should be directed to Dr. John (JJ) Langford, 865-341-8068 

This position will remain open for a minimum of 5 days after which it will close when a qualified candidate is identified and/or hired.

We accept Word (.doc, .docx), Adobe (unsecured .pdf), Rich Text Format (.rtf), and HTML (.htm, .html) up to 5MB in size. Resumes from third party vendors will not be accepted; these resumes will be deleted and the candidates submitted will not be considered for employment.

If you have trouble applying for a position, please email [email protected].

ORNL is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants, including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans, are encouraged to apply.  UT-Battelle is an E-Verify employer.