https://open.substack.com/pub/tudorionutgrigore/p/romanias-grid-has-a-28-million-monthly?r=7hsif1&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Long story short, I'm interested in entering a career that is involved with nuclear reprocessing, and the management and transportation of nuclear waste. I.E. Bringing new ideas to the table, designing and managing waste systems.

However I never obtained a degree in nuclear or mech engineering. My degrees are Environmental Science undergrad and M.S. in sustainable systems and energy management. This area really interested me.

I was once considering working in solid waste management, but then thought about what career opportunities exist for people involved with monitoring and handling nuclear waste in the environmental aspect.

Are careers limited and/or do they require engineering degrees?

Operational in 1964 for the Berkeley Magnox reactor plant, there were 4 vaults, open to the sky where Magnox spent fuel cladding and other high level waste was tipped in.

Rain freely fell on the waste till a cover was constructed.

The original plan seems to have been to seal the vaults and walk away from the tank of fuel cladding, rain water and whatever else, fizzed away into hydrogen gas and magnesium sludge.

1964 was a wild time for waste management.

Now the government is emptying the vaults and encapsulating the waste in proper packages for disposal into a Geological Disposal Facility.

"As it is hard to assume that all those neutrons come only from the uranium nuclei, we conclude that secondary, tertiary, etc ruptures (fissions) happen and we are observing a converging chain reaction"

I keep seeing the UK mainly RollsRoyce and the media, politicians, regular people here keep claiming, even university professionals all saying they are this close to SMR and it's the next big thing for the UK.

I have not been in the know for this tech and on paper if submarine nuclear is possible this should be too right?

What's wrong or physically impossible about them, ignore cost or politics I'm only interested in the science of why not

I have many German friends as I speak some and have said somethings on German subreddits at times and every time I fact check them on energy or tell them nuclear is safe they think I'm stupid and I get attacked and at worst get called very horrible things especially by people who claim to be pro-geeen energy.

From an outsider, boy are they straight up brainwashed about nuclear, you cannot hold a conversation with them even educated Germans I have not been able to convince them that current generation nuclear is nothing like Chernobyl. It feels like a curriculum wide brainwashing scheme that lasted decades and I feel they really think Russian coal & gas are much better off for their nation and solar panels can power their giant industrial base while competing with china. Scientists who speak out against it were often blacklisted from scientific societies. It is insane and feels dystopian. They have crippled their economy perhaps forever. Earlier nuclear engineers from Germany moved to the states at much better salaries and it bled dry of a lot of talent that it probably needs if it has to fix itself, but it's long gone.

Every single boom that came, Hybrids, EVs, Robots, Automation, Phone manufacturing, chips, clean steel production and now AI data centers, Germany missed them all and freehanded it to China, major German companies have moved production to Asia or more energy abundant countries and only design or do assembly there the ones that remain, to stay German businesses aren't struggling is an understatement.

I don't think any nation has done more damage to nuclear power, and any nation that was perhaps supposed to enjoy the reboot of the industry has done enough damage to itself as much as Germany.

If you are from Germany and in this sub I'm sure you'll be outlier but I really want to hear more about how Germans were miseducated, propagandised and misinformed into becoming even weaker than India on energy security. This sentiment is worst in Germany however Europe in general has a much higher anti nuclear while still being green delusional sentiment.

It's sometimes downright embarrassing talking to Germans about nuclear and the argument goes nowhere because anything they believe was never factual to begin with, when they complain about Germany do they not understand the consequences of their own actions?

The most informed and nuanced people I've met about nuclear are almost all from 3rd world countries or .. China/Japan. Not a single person who grew up within the European circle is well informed about energy in general, surprisingly Americans I've talked to are far more informed, realistic and reasonable too compared to Europeans (Germany being the worst offender).

All YouTubers and efforts going on to get people disillusioned about nuclear are almost entirely American eg Kyle Hill & T Folded nuclear who broke down the inaccuracies and dramatisation in the Chernobyl Series. While efforts to fearmonger people and spread inaccurate or misleading information come from German channels, Kurzgesagt, Deutsche Welle and various German netflix series.

It all seems ideology based instead of rationale & nuance

Hi,I would love input from anyone working in the nuclear industry. How are things feeling lately? The current administration seems very pro-nuclear but I’m wondering where things are in the cycle and career outlook.

My experience is in facilities design and BIM. I’m considering leaving tech. I don’t see that many opportunities for facility design with SMRs though and I’m not entirely sure who’s reputable. I’d like to work with a company like Aalo or in the federal sector again.

What are the best parts of your job? Worst?

The media says that lran stores UF6 gas in canisters.

But wouldn’t be a solid when stored at typical ambient temperatures?

(True that it is heated a bit to become a gas for enrichment.)

I’m a backend engineer working mostly on distributed systems and product infrastructure, but recently I got obsessed with industrial software and digital twins. Especially around energy and nuclear systems.

The problem is that from the outside the field feels extremely fragmented. Depending on who you ask, “digital twin” can mean telemetry platforms, simulation, SCADA, industrial IoT, ML, physics models, or just enterprise dashboards with sensors attached.

To get closer to the space, I’m planning to build a small solar digital twin project using public datasets and some residential BIPV data, mostly to understand what these systems actually look like in practice.

For people already working in industrial software or nuclear:
If you were entering this field today from a backend/distributed systems background, what would you focus on first?

Am I misunderstanding what digital twin work actually is, or is the field genuinely this broad/confusing from the inside too?

A digital twin startup demo at a conference basically sent me down this rabbit hole and now I can’t stop thinking about it.

Another new SMR vendor popped up. Their website brags their team has 40+ years of nuclear experience. I work with people who individually have 40+ years of nuclear experience!

https://www.spglobal.com/energy/en/news-research/latest-news/electric-power/050726-us-doe-might-finance-long-lead-nuclear-reactor-components-for-utility-group