Splitting atoms to make huge amounts of carbon-free electricity, plus fuel, safety, waste, and the new wave of small reactors.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Nuclear Engineer: Designs, runs, and improves nuclear reactors and the systems that keep them safe. Typical pay $125k.
Advanced / Small Modular Reactor Engineer: Designs the next generation of smaller, factory-built reactors that could power data centers, towns, and military bases. Typical pay $140k.
Senior Reactor Operator: Holds the federal license to supervise a nuclear reactor's control room. Typical pay $145k.
Nuclear Reactor Operator: Controls a nuclear reactor from the control room, adjusting power and watching hundreds of indicators. Typical pay $122k.
Nuclear Plant Shift Manager: The person in charge of the entire nuclear plant during a shift, including nights and weekends. Typical pay $160k.
Health Physicist: Protects workers and the public from radiation at nuclear plants, hospitals, and labs. Typical pay $115k.
Nuclear Criticality Safety Engineer: Makes sure nuclear materials are never stored or handled in a way that could start an accidental chain reaction. Typical pay $135k.
Nuclear Plant Training Instructor: Trains reactor operators and technicians, including running a full-size copy of the control room to practice emergencies. Typical pay $98k.
Radioactive Waste Shipping Specialist: Packages, labels and ships radioactive waste from power plants and hospitals following strict federal rules. Typical pay $82k.
Dry Cask Storage Technician: Helps move used nuclear fuel from cooling pools into giant steel-and-concrete casks that sit outside at the power plant for decades. Typical pay $75k.
Nuclear Plant Simulator Engineer: Keeps an exact copy of a nuclear plant's control room and its computer model working, so operators can practice emergencies they hope never happen. Typical pay $98k.
Starter: fastest way in
Decontamination Technician: Cleans radioactive contamination off tools, equipment, and work areas. Typical pay $50k.
Nuclear Security Officer: Guards nuclear plants as part of an armed, highly trained response team. Typical pay $54k.
Nuclear Outage Worker: Travels to nuclear plants during refueling shutdowns to help with cleaning, scaffolding, insulation removal and support work in radiation areas. Typical pay $52k.
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.