Lead Fuel Irradiation, Post Irradiation Examination (PIE) & Safety Testing

Oak Ridge, TN 37830

Posted:

09/18/2026

Employment Type:

Direct Hire

Job Number:

32412

Job Location:

Onsite

Industry:

ALT - Alternative Energy

JOB DESCRIPTION

Position Title:

Lead Fuel Irradiation, Post Irradiation Examination (PIE) & Safety Testing

Position Description:

Protingent Staffing has an exciting direct hire Lead Fuel Irradiation, PIE & Safety Testing opportunity.

Job Responsibilities:

Integrated Test Strategy:

Develop and maintain the KRONOS irradiation, PIE, and post-irradiation safety-testing strategy, including test objectives, evidence needs, acceptance criteria, schedules, decision gates, and contingency plans.

Specimen & Condition Definition:

Translate fuel-design requirements, failure mechanisms, model-validation needs, and safety-analysis conditions into representative specimen populations and measurable irradiation and accident-test conditions.

Facility Integration:

Lead technical and contractual interfaces with research reactors, hot cells, furnace-testing laboratories, analytical laboratories, shipping organizations, and national-laboratory or university partners.

Readiness & Execution:

Coordinate experiment design, safety approvals, neutronics, thermal analysis, dosimetry, instrumentation, fission-product monitoring, specimen loading, test operations, hold points, and formal readiness reviews.

Specimen Control:

Ensure specimen identity, manufacturing pedigree, pre-irradiation characterization, representativeness, chain of custody, packaging, transportation, storage, and nuclear-material controls remainplete and traceable.

PIE & Safety Testing:

Establishing partnerships that allow for the direct examinations and testing addressing dimensional change, cracking, coating failure, particle-matrix interactions, fission-product distribution, release behavior, microstructure, and accident-temperature retention.

Evidence Delivery:

Issueplete as-run, PIE, safety-test, anomaly, and qualification-impact reports with reconstructed exposure histories, quantified uncertainties, controlled data, independent review, and regulator-ready conclusions.

Job Qualifications:

Education:

Advanced degree in Nuclear Engineering, Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related technical discipline.

Nuclear Fuels Testing and Reporting:

7+ years of experience in irradiation testing, nuclear-fuel examination, high-temperature safety testing, orplex nuclear experiments. Demonstrated experience developing test plans, experiment specifications, specimen matrices, readiness reviews, and qualification-grade technical reports.

Nuclear Reactor Familiarity:

Working knowledge of research-reactor interfaces, dosimetry, instrumentation, thermal analysis, fission-product monitoring, and as-run condition reconstruction.

Familiarly with NQA-1

Quality Requirements:

Experience working under nuclear Quality Assurance requirements with controlled procedures, calibrated equipment, chain of custody, nonconformance control, and records management.

Technical Project Leadership:

Proven ability to coordinate multiple facilities, suppliers, technical disciplines, contracts, schedules, and long-lead nuclear activities.

Preferred Job Qualifications:

Direct experience with TRISO, FCM, HTGR, coated-particle, or advanced ceramic nuclear fuel.

Leadership experience with HFR, MITR, ATR, HFIR, or aparable research-reactor experiment.

Experience executing irradiated-fuel furnace testing, fission-product release measurements, or other accident-condition fuel tests.

Familiarity with HALEU specimens, nuclear-material transportation, international test-facility interfaces, and DOE AGR fuel evidence.

Job Details:

Job Type:

Full-time

Salary Range:

TBD

Location:

Oak Ridge, TN (Onsite)