Also called: Fuel Cycle Engineer
Designs how a fusion plant will make, capture, and recycle tritium, a rare radioactive fuel.
You design systems that pull tritium out of the reactor's exhaust and from 'breeding blankets' around it, and figure out how not to lose any.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Master's or PhD in chemical or nuclear engineering.
Ways in: Graduate school. Training cost: $60k – $150k.
Majors to look at: Chemical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering.
Growing much faster than average. Fusion isn't tracked by BLS; private fusion companies have raised billions and are hiring fast, but commercial power is still years away.
Low risk for 10 years. AI speeds process modeling; designing safe systems for a radioactive fuel is new, high-stakes human work.
Classes: AP Chemistry, AP Physics, AP Calculus.
Official data: O*NET occupation 17-2041.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.