Also called: Spent Fuel Loading Technician, ISFSI Technician
Helps move used nuclear fuel from cooling pools into giant steel-and-concrete casks that sit outside at the power plant for decades.
Your crew lowers a steel canister into a power plant's fuel pool, where operators load used fuel into it underwater. You weld the lid shut, dry the inside with vacuum pumps and fill it with helium. Then a special transporter carries the 150-ton cask to a concrete pad outside.
Estimated from cask contractor postings; travel pay and overtime add more.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Certificate, about 1 year after high school. Welding or mechanical training, plus nuclear site training; many are traveling contractors.
Ways in: Trade school, On-the-job training, Military. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Welding Technology, Industrial Maintenance, Nuclear Technology.
Growing about average. Used fuel keeps piling up at plants with no national repository, so loading campaigns continue.
Low risk for 10 years. Some welding is automated, but rigging, drying and inspecting casks stays hands-on under strict rules.
Classes: Welding or shop CTE, Physics, Chemistry.
Official data: O*NET occupation 47-4041.
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