Nuclear Equipment Operation Technicians

Operate equipment used for the release, control, and utilization of nuclear energy to assist scientists in laboratory and production activities.

Job Task

• Modify, devise, and maintain equipment used in operations.
• Perform testing, maintenance, repair, and upgrading of accelerator systems.
• Set up and operate machines to cut fuel elements to size to fit into shielding boxes or to polish test pieces, following blueprints and other specifications and using extension tools.
• Submit computations to supervisors for review.
• Test physical, chemical, or metallurgical properties of experimental materials according to standardized procedures, using test equipment and measuring instruments.
• Warn maintenance workers of radiation hazards, and direct workers to vacate hazardous areas.
• Write summaries of activities and record experimental data, such as accelerator performance, systems status, particle beam specification and beam conditions obtained.
• Adjust controls of equipment in order to control particle beam movement, pulse rates, energy and intensity, or radiation, according to specifications.
• Clear personnel from particle beam areas before operations begin.
• Control laboratory compounding equipment enclosed in protective hot cells in order to prepare radioisotopes and other radioactive materials.
• Follow policies and procedures for radiation workers in order to ensure personnel safety.
• Install instrumentation leads in reactor cores in order to measure operating temperatures and pressures, according to mockups, blueprints, and diagrams.
• Monitor instruments, gauges, and recording devices in control rooms during operation of equipment, under direction of nuclear experimenters.
• Notify experimenters in target control rooms when particle beam parameters meet specifications.
• Position fuel elements in geometric configurations around tubes in reactors or gamma facilities, according to radiation intensity specifications, using slave manipulators or extension tools.
• Review experiment schedules in order to determine specifications, such as subatomic particle energy, intensity, and repetition rate parameters.
• Set control panel switches, according to standard procedures, in order to route electric power from sources and direct particle beams through injector units.
• Transfer capsules of experimental materials to and from tubes, chambers, or tunnels leading to reactor cores, using slave manipulators or extension tools.
• Calculate equipment operating factors, such as radiation times, dosages, temperatures, gamma intensities, and pressures, using standard formulas and conversion tables.
• Collaborate with accelerator and beamline physicists in order to make experimental measurements.
• Communicate with accelerator maintenance personnel in order to ensure readiness of support systems, such as vacuum, water cooling, and radiofrequency power sources.
• Diagnose routine problems affecting accelerator performance.
• Direct the work of accelerator support service personnel.
• Disassemble, clean, and decontaminate hot cells and reactor parts during maintenance shutdowns, using slave manipulators, cranes, and hand tools.

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