Senior Core Physics and Radiation Protection Engineer
Senior Engineer - Do you want to contribute to the development of a new energy technology that can safely turn nuclear waste into emission-free energy? Are you excited about working in a hands-on deep-tech start-up team that aims to make a huge impact? Do you like complex challenges? Then, we might be just the company you are looking for!
Job discription
We are looking for a driven senior core physics and radiation protection engineer to join our innovative and international team.
About Thorizon
At Thorizon, we’re a passionate team spread across Amsterdam and Lyon, all working together to develop new nuclear power solutions. We design and create frontier technology for Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs).
Our purpose is to accelerate the availability of clean energy and help solve the climate crisis.
We are in the development phase and aim to solidify our design through analyses, simulations, experiments, prototyping, and partnerships. At Thorizon, we believe a strongly coupled multidisciplinary technology development requires a culture of full openness and transparency. That’s why we foster values like unity, communication, and support to ensure we grow together as a team while achieving our purpose.
Your mission
Are you passionate about core physics, radiation protection and criticality? Are you motivated to apply your expertise and know-how to the ongoing design studies for the Thorizon One reactor? Are you passionate about designing cutting-edge neutronics systems and solving complex engineering challenges? Do you get energized when working on innovative solutions?
You will be a major contributor of the core physics, radiation protection, and criticality expertise center, whose primary missions are, on the one hand, to provide comprehensive support and expertise in this area to the system design teams in charge of the fuel cycle, the reactor design and safety studies and, on the other hand, to define, execute, and adapt where needed the validation program using experiments carried out through shared initiatives, designed to ultimately prove that the innovations in our solution are feasible within the performance, cost, and time constraints of our project.
Within this general framework you will develop methods and tools to perform core physics, radiation protection and criticality studies, possibly in collaboration with external specialists, perform high quality studies with the appropriate computational tools, and validate the computational tools.
In your role, you can carry out an analysis to meet any core physics, radiation protection and criticality needs for Thorizon projects (Pioneer nuclear demonstrator design, FOAK/NOAK design), including budget, planning, tools selection, calculations, report issuance. You interact easily with other areas of expertise (such as nuclear safety, thermal-hydraulics, chemistry and mechanics).
Your level of expertise allows you to prioritize based on the importance of the needs, and as an expert, you have the power to recommend any necessary actions for the project related to your area of expertise.
Furthermore, you participate in external networks, including international initiatives, to stay at the forefront of industry developments.
In this environment, you get the unique opportunity to put your knowledge to the best use, develop your ideas, and explore various aspects of thermal-hydraulics engineering.
This role is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands or in Lyon, France.
In this role you will:
Set up an effective core physics computational train, using both probabilistic (MCNP, SERPENT for example) and deterministic approaches (APOLLO3, SCALE for example), as well as providing numerical/physical insights and practical approaches to establish appropriate coupling with thermal-hydraulics for effective transient analyses.
Set up core radiation protection or criticality models for simulation of shutdown, storage, handling and transport.
Set up and maintain scientific computing environments on Linux, including installing and configuring scientific software, libraries, and data analysis tools.
Automate the studies and their pre- and post-processing.
Contribute to definition and justification of the safety case.
Contribute to or establish effective exchange with other codes and results from other disciplines, such as thermal-hydraulics, salt composition chemistry and structural mechanics.
Participate in specifying, selecting, and managing external contractors and suppliers that support the project.
Guide junior colleagues in the same discipline and share your knowledge with your teammates.
Create transparency on development progress, identify issues and challenges, and propose solutions that will help team problem-solving and design iteration.
Implement a learning loop and ensure lessons learned are systematically integrated in way of working and the design itself.
Contribute to the definition, execution, and adaptation where needed of the validation program using experiments, designed to ultimately prove that the innovations in our solution are feasible within the performance, cost, and time constraints of our project. This program includes the qualification of the core physics, radiation protection and criticality Computational Tools to be used for design and safety, applying national (e.g., ASNR guide 28) or international (IAEA in particular) approaches.
Participate in meetings with regulators with the aim of defending in-house positions and contribute to maintaining an active dialogue with regulators (in particular ANVS, ASNR and FANC).
Be involved in various international initiatives (IAEA, Euratom…) dedicated to your discipline.
Stay updated on industry trends and advancements in approaches, methodologies, Computational Tools in core physics, radiation protection and criticality.
Report to the Core Physics lead and work in different project teams.
About you:
You have a master’s degree or a PhD in science or engineering, experience in the nuclear field is mandatory.
You have minimum 8 years of proven experience in core physics, radiation protection and criticality simulations and analyses. A PhD is regarded as work experience, if the subject of study is relevant to the job position.
You have experience with multidisciplinary code coupling from the fundamental data to the real-world application and (simulation) experience in other disciplines is regarded a plus.
You know the MSR specificities related to core-physics, radiation protection and criticality.
You have proficiency in Linux (Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, etc.) with strong command-line skills and knowledge of shell scripting.
You have experience with scientific computing tools like Python, R, MATLAB, SciPy, NumPy, or similar libraries.
You have a good knowledge of national or international (IAEA, NRC, ASNR or other) standards on scientific computing tool qualification.
You have strong organizational and multitasking abilities, with drive for quality and accuracy.
You get inspired by an organisation with a large variety of people, with different experiences and background.
You are eager to learn and like challenges.
You are creative and innovative: You rethink issues to find practical solutions to difficult problems, and you demonstrate agility by minimizing complexity. You have a pragmatic and constructive mindset.
You have a good sense of judgement: you think strategically (in your field and taking into account all the dimensions of the project), and you know how to prioritise your actions according to the key issues at stake.
You have excellent communication skills: you listen before you react, you are concise, you treat people with respect, you keep calm in stressful situations, you have excellent writing skills.
You are an excellent communicator in English, and preferably also French or Dutch, both spoken and written.
You create impact: your productions are models for your colleagues.
What can you expect from us?
Dynamic and ambitious team of nuclear technology professionals that are committed to solving today’s energy challenges.
Unique experience in a fast-growing VC-backed deep tech start-up.
Opportunity to work on a game-changing technology that reduces our carbon footprint and nuclear waste streams.
Competitive salary and an employee profit-sharing plan.
International work experience.
Office in the center of Amsterdam close to Central Station or Lyon next to the Central station.
Does this sound like a match?
We are looking forward to your application! Send your application to : recruitment@thorizon.com
Thorizon takes responsibility to make our company more inclusive. We need all ideas to realize our mission and want everyone to feel welcome in our team.