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The challenge
Often in the public eye, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) is an evolving public corporation. Essentially, we’re responsible for shaping and delivering the regulation of nuclear safety and security across the UK. Checking the criticality safety aspects of nuclear installations is an incredible technical challenge, and we now need a skilled specialist to apply their expertise across a range of sites.
The role
Our Nuclear Safety Inspectors are responsible for ensuring regulatory compliance and, as necessary, influencing improvements in safety standards to provide reassurance to the public and other stakeholders. Their work can involve everything from inspecting sites and assessing complex system designs through to investigating incidents and enforcing the law. Although technical credibility is vital, our Inspectors need excellent people skills too. It’s important they can understand issues, suggest solutions and work as part of a team.
Salary - Band 3: £70,329 - £80,940 (plus an additional £4,052 London Weighting Allowance)
In this role, you’ll be looking at the systems which are used maintain criticality safety in order to assess regulatory compliance and ensure that their implementation and use achieves the high standards of safety performance demanded in the nuclear sector. Although you’ll spend time visiting nuclear sites, you’ll also work as part of an expert team on office-based design assessments. Criticality safety is a complex field that will test your technical knowledge and practical capability to the full. You must have an understanding of modern criticality safety analysis and assessment concepts, such as: Monte-Carlo analysis, DBA, DCP and PSA, and their practical application in plant and transport areas, plus the ability to explain the challenges, including potential fault scenarios, to nuclear inspectors from other disciplines.
The person
Ideally, you’ll be an experienced specialist in criticality safety with a good understanding of criticality physics, safety case approaches and the implementation of criticality safety measures across the full range of facilities in the UK, and in the transport of fissile materials both nationally and abroad. You’ll have been involved in designing new facilities and transport packages, assessing legacy facilities and be familiar with plant operations. You’ll have experience of facilities dealing with: plutonium, uranium and MOx; fuel enrichment, fabrication, storage and handling; reprocessing of spent fuel; waste storage and handling; geological disposal concepts; weapons fabrication; and transport packages.
Don’t worry if you don’t have deep in experience in all of these areas – few applicants, if any, will have - but you’ll need to show that overall you have wide experience across the most of the systems that an ONR Specialist Criticality Inspector may have to deal with.
Whatever your background, you’ll need a good degree (or equivalent) in a scientific or engineering subject. You should also have achieved Chartered Membership of a relevant professional body (or be able to demonstrate equivalent experience that can lead to this status). Collaborative and team-focused with a keen eye for detail, you’ll have substantial experience from the nuclear sector, an organised approach, the ability to influence and the capability to deliver at pace in regulating criticality safety within an industry sector that continues to evolve and innovate. Involvement in defining criticality safety standards (eg ISO, ANSI, BSI, IAEA) and involvement in national or international criticality safety committees (eg WPC, IAEA, ANSI) would be an advantage.
For further information about the technical aspects of this role, please download the full job description, available on our website.
Please note that you are likely to be working from home initially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The rewards
We offer competitive salaries at the ONR, with this role attracting a salary of £70,329 - £80,940 (plus an additional £3,992 London Weighting Allowance). Furthermore, you’ll be eligible for a substantial Civil Service Pension scheme (including ill-health retirement and lump sum family benefits). Plus, you’ll receive a generous holiday entitlement.
About us
ONR is a Public Corporation with a Mission to ensure the highest standards of safety and security across all of the UK’s licensed nuclear sites. Our staff are drawn from a wider range of professional backgrounds in order to run a stand-alone business with specialist inspectors to deliver our core business including civil engineering, radiological protection, human factors, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and nuclear physics. And together they’re involved in everything from assessing safety cases, inspecting nuclear sites, communicating our decisions, training new recruits and representing the UK and ONR within the wider International nuclear community.