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If anyone here is in the nuclear industry, how did you get there/ what degree(s) did you pursue?

I keep hearing that I need to get any undergraduate engineering degree and then specialize in grad school, but I'd like to avoid more debt if possible. Thanks!

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Bryan’s Answer

I used to work for a government contractor who designed the nuclear reactors for the aircraft carriers for the US Navy. Definitely had a good handful of nuclear engineering majors working there, but that was not the only engineer type. I would say it was mostly mechanical engineers since the rest of the system of the nuclear plant is just a mechanical engineering type system. If you wanted to design the like fuel rods themselves, you could go Nuclear Engineering, or if you wanted to plan/design the power scheme then go nuclear. But if you want to just be designing the pressure vessel, or the control rods, or anything else in the entire plant, you could easily go Mechanical Engineering and get a gig there.

It seems like there is a lot of government contractor based Nuclear work as in the private field it is not too huge. But there are definitely a few companies working on Nuclear non-government, just might be a bit tougher to find openings.

Check the job openings pages of these companies, and look at the open roles, see which ones interest you the most, and you can use that to inform yourself on what kind of path you want to go down for your major in college.
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Joseph’s Answer

I'm another voice to add to the "specialise at postgrad" crowd - but more of a physics direction than engineering. I did an undergrad BSc in Physics with Astrophysics, realised nuclear was more my thing than astro, then did a nuclear physics and engineering MSc.
After that, a lot of applications before I landed my first industry role (happened to be in a radiochemical lab) then I've moved around a few different radiation measurement roles in the supply chain over the first 5-10 years of my career, and eventually settled in my current role in a national lab environment.

If you're looking to go straight into industry from undergrad, that is possible for some roles, but there's likely to be a lot of competition, and a postgrad degree gives you more of an edge. I personally went MSc rather than the full commitment of a PhD, although do find that can be occasionally a bit limiting in terms of career progression - I kind of wish I'd stayed on for a full PhD, and am now thinking about options to go back to study for a part-time PhD, but that's more challenging once you've been in full time employment a while.
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