Decommissioning engineer

Pay in the destination countries

Monthly, in US dollars. Each country is an Imora admission package — open one for that route's fees, language requirement and deadline.

What does the day look like?

Between 50% and 60% of your time is spent in an office. You design cutting and removal plans for reactor pressure vessels (RPV) and contaminated coolant piping, run shielding calculations in codes like MCNP, MicroShield, SCALE, and ORIGEN, build 3D models in AutoCAD and SolidWorks, and draft ALARA safety cases. Another 20% to 30% goes to permitting, safety briefings, and regulatory compliance audits. Only 15% to 20% of your hours are hands-on inside containment buildings or radiological hot cells, where you supervise contractor cuts or operate tele-operated robotic arms, diamond-wire saws, and plasma-arc cutters.

The standard schedule is 37 to 40 hours per week, running Monday to Friday from 8:00 to 16:30. During critical vessel cutting campaigns, heavy crane lifts, or fuel transfers, work shifts to 12-hour rotating day and night cycles. Working in contaminated zones requires Level C/B personal protective equipment, powered air-purifying respirators (PAPR), heavy lead aprons, and dosimetry instruments like Berthold or Mirion RDS-31 monitors.

Where does this lead?