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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Tell me about being an Engineer!
 
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Lunchbox42
Jul 31, 2006

Colmface posted:

So, I have a question for the nuclear engineers out there.

I'm in my third year of studying EE and after third year, the school lets us go on an internship for 12-16 months. I'm really interested in working in power and specifically, in working with nuclear power. What're the chances that I could get an internship with a company that deals with nuclear power (either at the plant itself or with distributing the power)? I live in Canada, but I'm willing to travel.

I guess part of the problem is there's no specific stream for nuclear engineers at my school, and the EE path only dabbles in power electronics until the third year. I'm going to be taking a course on energy systems next semester, but that's all I'll really have under my belt except for a few circuits courses, numerical methods and a statistics class. Would I have a shot at an internship, or would I just have to do my undergrad and find a school that has a Master's program for NE?
Getting an internship at a plant is easy enough, the nuke I work at is always on the prowl for interns, also if you go to a big generation companies like Exelon or Progress (both US companies) there should be plenty of opportunity out there, I'm not positive what the criteria is for citizenship to get an internship position, but if you're interested I can probably find out for you.

One thing to note though, is there's a huge difference between being in the generation side and the distribution side, particularly with nuclear. If you do decide to work in a nuke be prepared for miles of paperwork for every change, and being held to a very high level of scrutiny.

And, getting into nuclear with an EE degree, you can move into a systems engineering or design type position at a nuke depending on your qualifications. One good thing is the rate of people retiring is making new engineers much more attractive. But, bonified nuclear engineers are reactor engineers that do rod patterns and core flux calcs and all sorts of stuff like that. If you want to do that you have to go to a school that has a program specifically for it.

If you want any more insight into engineering at a US nuclear plant, feel free to PM me.

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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Tell me about being an Engineer!