Probabilistic Safety Analysis Engineer (SMR)

Holtec International and its subsidiary companies are designing an unfailingly safe and secure source of clean energy using nuclear fission, called the SMR-160 small modular reactor. The SMR-160 is a nuclear power plant relying on passively designed systems inside containment to place and maintain the reactor in a safe shutdown condition with no reliance on operator actions. The plant is a “walk away safe” design ideally sized for significant small power plant markets needing to replace carbon emitting generation with safe, clean load following replacement generation, and to integrate with grids containing high variable renewable capacity by virtue of its broad load-following capability. 

The successful PSA candidate will join a growing multidisciplinary team of designers and engineers designing this next generation nuclear power plant as part of SMR LLC, which is a subsidiary of the Holtec International family, a global turnkey supplier of equipment and systems for nuclear, solar, geothermal, and fossil power generation sectors of the energy industry. 

The PSA Engineer is responsible for supporting internal and external events probabilistic safety analysis evaluations of the SMR‑160 plant throughout its design and construction phases. The PSA Engineer will work alongside engineers, designers, and analysts in a dynamic development environment. The PSA Engineer participates in the daily activities of the multinational PSA team, ensuring continued technical communication/information exchange between various PSA task leaders during the development of internal and external events PSA for the SMR plant in its design and construction phases. The PSA Engineer is experienced in event tree and fault tree modeling methods and actively participates in requirements development, detailed development, engineering analysis and technical documentation. 

The ideal PSA Engineer will have experience with the CAFTA suite of computer codes and will be capable of performing system level and plant level quantification, uncertainty analysis, and sensitivity analysis.   Experience with cut set reviews, Internal Flood PSA development, Low Power and Shutdown PSA development, Fire PSA development, Seismic Margins analysis, High Winds or External Flood analysis is highly desirable. The Engineer will be part of a team executing a U.S. Government cost-shared development program requiring efficient completion of engineering assignments.

Specific Areas of Responsibility:

• Execute key PSA activities as a member of the multinational PSA team, including engineering analyses and technical documentation
• Gain a deep understanding of the SMR-160 concept design, its safety features and design functions of the plant’s Systems, Structures, and Components (SSC)
• Interact with team members from other disciplines and vendors to help identify and recommend potential SMR-160 design and operational improvements using PSA risk insights
• Provide risk analysis perspective to SMR-160 system designers
• Prepare and review design deliverables and presentations
• Develop and implement PSA methodologies for internal and external events.
• Performing system level and plant level quantification, uncertainty analysis, and sensitivity analysis
• Support development of engineering and licensing documentation
• Applicants should be prepared to play an active role in a project-driven and highly integrated engineering team. 

Minimum Requirements:

• B.S. degree in Nuclear Engineering, Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or closely related field of engineering.
• 3-10 years of experience in PSA modeling 
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and computer skills.
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills.
• Excellent attention to detail and capable of producing error-free documents.
• Eligible to work under 10 CFR Part 810. 

Optional Additional Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in Nuclear Engineering, Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or closely related field of engineering.
• Experience in commercial nuclear or naval nuclear design and/or operation
• Experience in safety analysis of Pressurized Water-type reactors (PWR)
• Experience with using CAFTA, MELCOR, RELAP, RADTRAD, GOTHIC and/or other conventional computer codes for NPP model development and risk quantification.
• Experience with Thermal-Hydraulic Analysis and/or Component Reliability Analysis and/or Human Reliability Analysis
• Experience in a specialty PSA, including Low Power/Shutdown, Internal Flood, Internal Fire, External Flood, High Winds or Seismic Margins Analysis PSA modeling, is a plus 
• Applications with a minimum of 5-10 years of experience in the PSA discipline, with 2-5 years of experience in a specialty PSA area can be considered for a Senior Specialty PSA Engineer position