Nuclear Power Reactor Operators

Operate or control nuclear reactors.

Sector: Skilled Trades
Preparation: Zone 3 — medium preparation needed
O*NET code: 51-8011.00

What you'll actually do

The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.

Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards

central to the job — rated 93/100 for importance.
Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings

central to the job — rated 88/100 for importance.
Getting Information

central to the job — rated 88/100 for importance.
Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events

central to the job — rated 88/100 for importance.
Documenting/Recording Information

a major part of the work — rated 85/100 for importance.
Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates

a major part of the work — rated 83/100 for importance.

Operate or control nuclear reactors. Move control rods, start and stop equipment, monitor and adjust controls, and record data in logs. Implement emergency procedures when needed. May respond to abnormalities, determine cause, and recommend corrective action.

What it takes

Two numbers per line: the level the work expects, and how important it is to doing the job well. Both are O*NET ratings, already on a 0–100 scale.

Skills

Operations Monitoring

Needed at a solid working level (55/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Reading Comprehension

Needed at a solid working level (55/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Operation and Control

Needed at a solid working level (54/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Critical Thinking

Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
Monitoring

Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.

Knowledge

Physics

Needed at a high level (68/100), and rated 77/100 for importance.
Mechanical

Needed at a high level (65/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
Public Safety and Security

Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 67/100 for importance.
Mathematics

Needed at a high level (60/100), and rated 65/100 for importance.

Abilities

Problem Sensitivity

Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 78/100 for importance.
Information Ordering

Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Oral Comprehension

Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
Oral Expression

Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.

How people get in

O*NET places this occupation in Zone 3 — medium preparation needed. That is a statement about what employers typically require, not a rule about you.

Education

Vocational training, an associate degree, or equivalent on-the-job experience.

Experience

One to two years of related experience is typical.

Training

Employers expect you to arrive with the core skill already.

How the work tends to run

Each line below is read off a single O*NET activity rating for this occupation — named, so you can disagree with it.

Rules and standards are checkable and someone checks them.From “Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards”
You run equipment, and running it well is a skill in itself.From “Controlling Machines and Processes”

How FlightWay scores your fit against this

No black box. Here is the whole method, factor by factor.

1. You answer a short quiz: Your answers build a profile across the same 161 O*NET dimensions this page is describing — skills, knowledge, abilities and work activities. Same axes, so the comparison is like-for-like.
2. We correlate the two profiles: Fit is a mean-centered cosine — a correlation between the SHAPE of your profile and the shape of Nuclear Power Reactor Operators. Centering matters: raw similarity between any two occupations sits at 0.70–0.85 because all work shares a common profile, so without it every career would look like a match.
3. The number you see is personality fit only: "Would I want this work" and "am I ready for this work" are different questions, and averaging them answers neither. So readiness — what your résumé, coursework and projects prove — is scored separately and shown next to fit, never blended into it.
4. Every factor is visible: You can open any match and see which dimensions pushed it up and which pulled it down. If you disagree with the number, you can see exactly where it came from.

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Occupational data on this page comes from the O*NET 30.3 Database, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET is a registered trademark of USDOL/ETA. FlightWay is not endorsed by, and USDOL/ETA is not responsible for, anything built on that data — see our terms. What is ours is the comparison, the score and the plan.