Senior/Principal Engineer - Safeguards & Non-Proliferation

Location: Bellevue and Everett,Washington,United States

TITLE:                  Senior/Principal Engineer, Safeguards & Non-Proliferation          

LOCATION:          Everett, WA      

TerraPower is a nuclear technology company based in Bellevue, Washington. At its core, the company is working to raise living standards globally through a more affordable, secure and environmentally friendly form of nuclear energy along with innovations in medical isotopes to improve human health. In 2006, TerraPower originated with Bill Gates and a group of like-minded visionaries who evaluated the fundamental challenges to raising living standards around the world. They recognized energy access was crucial to the health and economic well-being of communities and decided that the private sector needed to take action and create energy sources that would advance global energy deployment. TerraPower’s mission is to be a world leader in new nuclear technologies, while developing innovators and future leaders in the nuclear field. As a result, the company’s activities in the fields of nuclear energy and related sciences are yielding significant innovations in the safety and economics of nuclear power, hybrid energy and medical applications – all for significant human health benefits.

TerraPower is seeking to hire highly motivated and forward-thinking professionals who are interested in focusing on advanced nuclear reactor research and development and influencing change within the nuclear power landscape and bringing forward the critical production of medical isotopes.  TerraPower is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religious creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected Veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. In addition, as a federal contractor, TerraPower has instituted an Affirmative Action Plan (AAP) in an effort to proactively recruit, hire, and promote women, minorities, disabled persons and veterans.

Senior/Principal Engineer, Safeguards & Nonproliferation

TerraPower’s Molten Chloride Fast Reactor (MCFR) project seeks an experienced Senior or Principal Engineer for Safeguards and Non-Proliferation. MCFR is commercializing the technology to operate the world’s first fast-spectrum, chloride salt cooled molten salt reactor. TerraPower and its partners are building the foundation of the MCFR technology development program, including chloride salt separate effects tests, the MCFR Integrated Effects Test (IET), and the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE) project. The fuel form and operational modes of MCFRs are outside the basis of established safeguards and material accounting approaches. Material in an MCFR will be continuously flowing and changing composition from transmutation, depletion, and fuel salt polishing. Existing safeguards technologies and regulatory frameworks are premised on either item accounting of containerized fuel during irradiation or bulk material undergoing chemical processing in the absence of irradiation. MCFR technology combines aspects of both paradigms, requiring the development of novel technologies and methodologies for nuclear material accounting, containment and surveillance, and unattended/remote monitoring systems.

In this role, you will lead R&D for safeguards and material control and accounting (MC&A) instrumentation technology for MCFR. You will report to the discipline manager for the Safeguards & Non-Proliferation Group, and you will build collaborative teams across all MCFR disciplines. You will play a crucial role in developing a strategic vision for R&D to adapt existing safeguards and MC&A instrumentation and measurement methodologies to MCFR fuel cycles, as well as developing novel approaches for deployment in future commercial MCFR plants. Initial activities will include assessing readiness of current safeguards technologies for MCFR deployment, creating R&D plans to close technology gaps, and building capability for safeguards instrumentation experimental work. You will then build and lead multi-disciplinary teams to execute these R&D plans and to incorporate existing and novel safeguards instrumentation and methodologies into MCFR plant design cycles. 

Responsibilities:

•    Lead development and execution of the MC&A technology R&D roadmap for MCFR fuel cycle technologies

•    Build capacity and capability for safeguards and MC&A instrumentation experimental campaigns at TerraPower’s laboratory facilities

•    Lead development of unattended and remote monitoring approach