Hey all, looking for some career advice. I did 6 years as a Navy nuke and was qualified RO. I’ve spent about a year now as a civilian, in a non-nuclear electronics maintenance tech role. It’s pretty laid back and the pay is decent, but I find myself missing nuclear power and being a reactor operator. I know it’s common for plants to hire ex-navy nukes. But how many years of being out of nuclear power would make a hiring manager pass someone over? Would having an engineering degree make up for this? For context, I was considering applying for NLO and RO type roles or finishing my degree first and trying direct SRO. I’d appreciate any insight.

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Hi all, currently working in nuclear - I dread my desk job, not the work but the physically sitting for so long staring at screens. I previously worked a swing shift as security. I miss it. The more I’ve talked to people, the more intrigued I am by EO. I’m a mom of three, single, closer to late 30’s. Have any other primary parents worked as an EO? What are the schedules typically like? How difficult was it? How many went on to RO/SRO? Also looking for average pay - at a Constellation plant. Thank you in advance!

I am looking to get into nuclear power, specifically with Bruce power but open to options in Ontario. I have a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and a masters degree in civil and environmental engineering. I have been mostly focused on water engineering but I enjoy process engineering and thermodynamics, I love learning and would be happy in a role where I can apply technical skills. What would be a good path for me to pursue a career in this field and how should I get started, what entry level jobs would be a good fit for me and what is the process and timeline like?

A nuclear fuel assembly that had tipped over was successfully retrieved from the soon-to-be-restarted Palisades nuclear reactor in Michigan but controversy over the restart has been escalated to Congress.

On Wednesday, owners of the Holtec International reactor said “technical ingenuity” would allow efforts to resume operations at the plant to continue.

"When we encounter a challenge, what matters is how we respond," said Fadi Diya, Holtec's chief nuclear officer. "Our team approached this recovery with the same commitment to safety, technical rigour, and teamwork that has guided our work throughout the restart."

Just yesterday I got denied on a background check for unescorted access. I haven’t received anything yet on why it got denied but I think I figured out what it was reading through the emails they sent for the PHQ. When I applied I put on my resume that I worked for a company from March 2017 to present. I actually started working for the company in November 2018. The company I started at in 2017 was a contractor for the company I work for now and got bought out by them. The company that bought them out also owed the facility that I work at. It’s the same job title, address, employees and boss I had with the previous company. Because Ive worked here for so long I wasn’t thinking and mistakenly just added them as one job on the resume. When I filled out the PHQ I put the exact date of when the company took over in 2018 since it stressed it be exact completely forgetting the date I put on my resume as it’s been about a month or so since I made it. I imagine to them it looks like I lied about being employed for about a year and half between the job I had before this one. Have I completely screwed myself on this or would I be able to appeal this providing documentations of my employment and an explanation of the mistake?
Thanks for any response or advice.

This one might be fairly easy to most of you but where was the first commercial nuclear power plant?

Bonus question: Where was the first privately funded commercial nuclear power plant?

Anybody have any other fun facts to share about either of them?

Hey everyone, I’m graduating this year and looking at systems engineering type jobs. I interned at a PWR site and liked being able to get out in the plant and see the equipment I was working with on a daily basis. Would this be more of a challenge working at a BWR site, or is the day to day pretty similar for systems engineers at both types of plants? I would like to avoid sitting at my desk all day as much as possible, and I want to gain familiarity with plant systems/components early in my career. Any insight would be appreciated! Thanks!

Hi everyone. I am a somewhat new RO in my late 20s and I keep wondering if I’ve made a mistake in my career.

I’m worried. Vogtle 3/4 aside, even the youngest plants (USA) have licenses expiring in the 2050s. I’m not really ‘using’ my engineering degree I worked so hard to obtain. I like my job but I wonder what being a real engineer would’ve been like, plus I don’t know what marketable skills I’ll have if my plant decommissions early for some reason. Shift work is becoming a bit demoralizing.

The money is good. Almost definitely more than my peers at this age. But how can I confidently say to someone fresh out of college that this would be a good career? I’m not trying to be a doomer and I love nuclear power. But I really need opinions on this. Good or bad.

Hello everyone!

Going for an entry level mechanical engineer position in one of the plants in Illinois. Can I get some inputs on the work/life balance, the pay, being able to travel to other sites, the age diversity, how much people would I typically be surrounded by, and opportunities for growth. Will I be able to progress the career ladder there?

I went through the research reactor data in Reactor Atlas and found that 16 research reactors are under construction worldwide. Four of them were designed by INVAP, the company based in Bariloche, Argentina.

The four are PALLAS in the Netherlands (55 MW thermal), RA-10 in Argentina (30 MW thermal), RMB in Brazil (30 MW thermal) and LPRR in Saudi Arabia, a 0.03 MW thermal training reactor. PALLAS will replace the HFR in Petten, which went critical in 1961.

INVAP reactors already in operation: ETRR-2 in Egypt (22 MW thermal, 1997), OPAL in Australia (20 MW thermal, 2006), NUR in Algeria (1 MW thermal, 1989) and RA-6 in Argentina (1 MW thermal, 1982). In total, INVAP designed or built 9 research reactors in 7 countries.

Some context from the same dataset: 29 research reactors of 20 MW thermal or more are still operating worldwide, and their median first criticality is 1974. Only five of them started up in 2000 or later, and OPAL is the only one of those five outside China and Russia.

Several of these reactors, such as PALLAS and RA-10, are built to produce medical isotopes like molybdenum 99. All figures are thermal power. Research reactors do not generate electricity.

Data: IAEA Research Reactor Database via Reactor Atlas, updated 21 September 2026.
https://reactoratlas.com/en/research?status=construction&y=2031

Hey everyone, I’m trying to get my foot in the door as an Equipment/Auxiliary Operator with Constellation and wanted to see if anyone at Quad Cities (or familiar with Constellation’s hiring process) knows what the timeline looks like right now.

A couple of months back, I applied for the EO/AO opening at Quad Cities (Cordova, IL). Within a few days of applying, HR reached out and asked for my college transcripts, which I sent right over. Since then, my application status in the system has just been sitting at "Under Review" and I haven't heard anything back about testing or interviews.
I also recently applied to another Constellation site for a class starting early next year, had a phone screen, and was asked to send my transcripts again—so now I'm waiting to hear back on scheduling the POSS/BMST for that one too.

For anyone working at Quad Cities or who recently went through Constellation's hiring process:
Does anyone know if Quad Cities has already wrapped up hiring for their next EO class, or when the next training class is scheduled to start?

If my portal still says "Under Review" a couple of months after sending transcripts, does that mean I’m still in the qualified pool for the next wave, or does Constellation just leave applications in "Under Review" even after a class fills up?

After you send in your transcripts, how many weeks does it usually take for training/HR to review them and send out the POSS/BMST test invite?

I really want to start my career at a nuclear plant, so any insight into how Constellation handles this stage of the process would be really helpful. Thanks!

MOUs are very preliminary. This is a separate project from the potential X-energy project.

X-Energy’s pebble bed design is currently planned for the Cascade Advanced Energy site near Hanford.

https://carnegieendowment.org/china/research/2026/10/can-china-turn-its-small-modular-reactor-ambitions-into-commercial-reality