Any Environmental or Nuclear Engineers in the Lounge?
 

I'm interested in being an environmental or nuclear engineer. Basically, I want to work with nuclear energy and develop ways of recycling nuclear waste. Is there anyone in the Lounge who can give me any words of wisdom concerning either of these two careers?

All the environmental engineers I know do Civil type work mostly with wastewater treatment and wetlands

No but last week I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express.

Re: Any Environmental or Nuclear Engineers in the Lounge?
 

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11367907#post11367907 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Random Aquarist [/i]
[B]I'm interested in being an environmental or nuclear engineer. Basically, I want to work with nuclear energy and develop ways of recycling nuclear waste. Is there anyone in the Lounge who can give me any words of wisdom concerning either of these two careers? [/B][/QUOTE]

If you go the nuclear route wear gloves. HTH

If you want to go that route, get a Mechanical Engineering degree with a special emphasis on Nuclear Energy. DO NOT get a degree in Nuclear Engineering, engineering specialties are not as good as their more general counterparts. However, unless you're going into Quantum physics, no one is going to hire you to do nuclear R&D.

So to paraphrase, Mech. Engr. degree is a good pragmatic way to get into the nuclear industry. But a PhD in quantum mechanics/physics will be required to get you into a R&D position.

Personally, I would pursue other fields of interest.

I've done quite a bit of clean up on nuclear contamination sites and know a good bit about both fields.


The most viable route for a nuclear engineer these days is to get your degree then go into the Navy. This would be more of a reactor operations or rad safety track. The vast majority of people working in the private sector in this field are former Navy nukes.

The problem with nuclear engineers is that we're really not doing that much in the way of design or research. In the 1970's and 1980's, we were doing scads of it but it has really slowed down. There aren't many people out there doing it and there are even less job opening. A research position would almost certainly have to come as faculty at a major university or as an employee at one of the national laboratories.

On the specific subject of recycling nuclear waste, it depends on which waste streams you are talking about as to whether or not there is any work at all. Any work that is done in this field is done through Federal funding as it is just too expensive and riskey (from a proffit making perspective) for a private company to undertake such research. Again, you're talking national labs and universities.

Re: Any Environmental or Nuclear Engineers in the Lounge?
 

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11367907#post11367907 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Random Aquarist [/i]
[B] Is there anyone in the Lounge who can give me any words of wisdom [/B][/QUOTE]

Wear lead underwear.

Kevin

Re: Any Environmental or Nuclear Engineers in the Lounge?
 

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11367907#post11367907 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Random Aquarist [/i]
[B]Is there anyone in the Lounge who can give me any words of wisdom concerning either of these two careers? [/B][/QUOTE]

He's a troll, right? No one would ask this in the lounge. :rolleyes:

My EX is a Nuke E. from K-State University ! She was approached by the CIA to work on the Nuke Sub program but turned it down. I do know that one of her main 'issues' with being a Nuke Eng. is that this country will NEVER embrace nuclear power so the positions and opps for advancement are quite limited !

No, but I did sleep in a Hotel 6 last nite
And I watch Homer faithfully so I could swing the job

don't get cancer

my step dad is a nucular engineer, worked his way up for years. started out at the nucular power plant as a janitor. they send him to schhool at theyre facility for awhile, bump him up to a better position. I bet hes been there 15 years now. hes pretty high up there now.

but i agree he doesent seem like a real happy love his job kinda person. he cant wait to retire.

He had a few beers when he came home from work one day around 6-8 we'll say. buzz, not wasted. the next afternoon he had another random drug test (many of them weekly) and he had like .1 alcohol in his system, they freaked out! paid vacation for a few weeks, counceling ect.

imagine if you got in real trouble.

when the countrys on basicly any alert at all the entire plant gets surround by guys with giant guns and its like going into a prison trying to geet into work. (if u forget your id, you go home and get it!!)

but hey... pays real good....

Don't even get me started on nuclear security.

dont let the 2 bars touch.

[QUOTE]He had a few beers when he came home from work one day around 6-8 we'll say. buzz, not wasted. the next afternoon he had another random drug test (many of them weekly) and he had like .1 alcohol in his system, they freaked out! paid vacation for a few weeks, counceling ect. [/QUOTE]

Holy crap I hope they were freaked out if he had .1 alcohol in his system. That is legally drunk.


If you really want to do it I second the Mech. Eng specializing in nuclear engineering route. If anything you always have the ME degree to fall back on, and the world will always need us ;)

I would love to see nuclear energy take off in this country, but I don't see it happening in the next 20 years.

buckeye... .001 maybe? :D

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11373167#post11373167 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TOURKID [/i]
[B]He had a few beers when he came home from work one day around 6-8 we'll say. buzz, not wasted. the next afternoon he had another random drug test (many of them weekly) and he had like .1 alcohol in his system, they freaked out! paid vacation for a few weeks, counceling ect.

imagine if you got in real trouble.[/B][/QUOTE]

In order to have that HIGH of an alcohol level he'd have to be drinking AT WORK
In MA .08 is the legal limit for driving

.001 I would think is still high 12+ hours later?