Add on to my physics degree?

[clcartwr]

I've been lurking around here for a while buy haven't chimed in much.  Just been doing my research and trying to learn as much as possible.  I'm only one semester away from having my bachelors in physics for the University of Mississippi but am lacking in any research experience etc.  (UM doesn't offer a whole lot to undergrad physics students).  I'm wanting to get into the nuke field and I know physics is a good base for training.  I really enjoy working with my hands and would like a technician job (been working as a small engine mechanic paying my way through school...odd combination i know).  My question is are there any programs that I should look into that can up my chances of getting in?  Like taking electronics classes at the local community college etc? I have scored really high on the POSS in the past but still haven't seemed to get the edge over everyone else.  Maybe just the fact that I am still in school has a lot to do with it but any advice would be appreciated.


I know there have been questions like this in the past but none really directly answered especially with just a physics degree.

[Fermi2]

Anything you can take will definitely help you once you get into the job however it probably won't help you actually get the job.

Mike

[clcartwr]

Anything that will help other than just outright experience in the nuke industry?

[alphadude]

yea take a boiler room Rad Safety Officer class
take a hazmat shipping training and certification class
Take a Canberra class for gamma spect
take a NORM class
take a 40 hour osha hazwoper class
take all the FEMA online classes (free)
take a MARSSIM class
take a class in advanced NDA or NDT
take a radiology class
take an OSHA class
take a crit safety class
take a FMEA class
yadda yadda

there are tons more... oh and nuke is not just makin power... that's just the surface...

[clcartwr]

Thanks!  I have been contemplating taking the 40hr hazwoper.  Trying to find things I can do while still taking a full college course load next semester.....Just anything to help me out.

[tr]

You might also want to think about engineer type jobs.  The nuclear fuel portion of the various utilities are usually open to people with physics degrees, as well as companies like GE, Westinghouse, AREVA, etc.  The health physics engineering staff is probably another option.  I know the utility I work for employs many physics majors in the fuels area.  After all, you can always work with your hands on the weekends.

One of the engineering departments may offer an introductory course in nuclear or power engineering that you might be able to take as an elective.  That, or courses in radiation health physics, would help.  If nothing else, they show potential employers that you are serious about getting into the nuclear field.

If you get a chance, you should go to the ANS student conference (April 1-5, 2009 in Gainesville FL), as there are typically a lot of recruiters there.  The website is http://ans.nre.ufl.edu/conference/

[SloGlo]

  I'm wanting to get into the nuke field and I know physics is a good base for training.  I really enjoy working with my hands and would like a technician job

oh kay.  ya wanna tech job.  what kind of tech?  their is a smorgasbored of tech jobs in the nuke industry.  let's limit ourselves too the power generation area for a second.  there's the operation group, and their techs would be the non-licensed operators (there's other names for them two, and you can use them in polite company butt i'll just stay with the nlo).  there's the health physics group and there techs are called hp techs ( udder names two, most ya can't use in polite company).   there's the chemistry group and there techs are called chemists (no other names apply, not even in non-polite circles, because all the other cool names got taken by the first two groups).  there's the environmental group and their techs git borrowed from everyone else (because they don't go in polite company).  theirs' the maintenance group and they're techs are called craftsmen (when there's a job, when dinner's on the line they answer to anything  ) 
sew, watt i'm saying is that ya gotta know where ya wanna work to expand the education process.  or, as broadzilla sez, git the degree, git the job, git the extra classes.

[clcartwr]

I have been trying to get on with TVA for one of their SGPO training positions but haven't succeeded with that just yet... the fact that I'm not 60 miles from any of their nuke plants hurts me I guess.  (closest is Browns Ferry about ~120miles, I'm still within TVA's service zones though)  From what I've read they tend towards local candidates.  I really don't know exactly what I want to do but have always had extreme interests in nuclear power.  I've taken the only two course UM offers towards any kind of career in nuc/rad and that's just a basic radiation science course and then they offer a full 4 hour credit lab to go along.  Most enjoyable/hands on class I've taken but that is all they have to offer.  Engineering department just deals with civil, chemical, and electrical no nuclear.  I just know I'm a hands on person and don't want to be stuck behind a desk or doing research all day.  I like to be out there actually doing something.

[kp88]

I'm only one semester away from having my bachelors in physics for the University of Mississippi but am lacking in any research experience etc.  (UM doesn't offer a whole lot to undergrad physics students).  I'm wanting to get into the nuke field and I know physics is a good base for training.  I really enjoy working with my hands and would like a technician job (been working as a small engine mechanic paying my way through school...odd combination i know). 

You may be on the wrong path for a Technician job.  Any degree is certainly helpful, but a Technical College would better prepare you to be a Machinist or Electrician, and help you get the experience.  From what I understand, most utilities are always hurting for linemen, if you like to work with high voltage electricity, on utility poles, in ice storms, they'll train you.
Just my opinion, a physics degree won't help much in getting a Technician job.  You're on the path for a staff desk job.

[wlrun3@aol.com]

   ...http://www.masterlee.com/index.html...

   ...reactor disassembly/reassembly for refuel...

[alphadude]

avoid the tech route if you can. its hard to get out of it when you go down that path. apply at Los Alamos, take that route then go into safety analysis (not osha safety), but crit safety. big shortage of people there.

[Khak-Hater]

For the nuke field, you probably picked the wrong SEC school to attend.  LSU, UF and UT offer NE degrees.  You might be able to qualify for in-state tuition rates given that your state schools don't offer an NE degree.  I remember that KY and TN had such an agreement [since neither UK or UL offer an NE degree].  If you're too close to graduation to consider a transfer, then you might want to consider finishing your physics degree and going to grad school and getting an MS in NE. 

If that's not something you'd be interested in, then the US Navy is a wonderful way to get hands on Nuclear experience.  With your physics degree, you'd be qualified to serve as a zero [a khak, an officer], although you'd get more hands-on experience as a blueshirt [enlisted].  In either case, anyone [zero or blueshirt] in the Navy nuke program is going to get more hands on experience than a desk engineering job.

You can also break into the nuke field through the civilian sector with your physics degree (e.g., as an operator, licensing specialist, engineering specialist, quality specialist, etc.).  In your area, I'd try EOI instead of TVA, but if you really want to make it in, then I'd try everyone in the country.  Someone will hire you, then when you get some experience, you can try to move back closer to home if you want. 

Good Luck,

MGM

[grantime]

I have a physics degree .  It got my foot in door and has given me a good background for HP.  At least the Southern Co plants require a BS in a hard science for a house slot.   Physics will get you in either HP or ENV. 

[nuke_girl]

Texas A & M has an  operating  reactor for research...have you considered a masters?..or doing an internship?

Call Linda Morris at 800 792 TSTC for info..she currently heads ups the environmental health and safety dept as well as being a health physicist. She also is chairman of education for the South Texas chapter  of the Health Physics society and she is on the alumni board at A & M..she can defo direct you in the right path anddddd is just really nice.

Good Luck
Kathleen

[alphadude]

while "health physics" sounds related to your degree, its somewhat a splinter and is more closely related to Industrial hygiene than classical physics. (determine exposures and reduce risk). There are a few Monte Carlo HP types but you can almost count them on both hands and feet.  Now if you go for your masters in HP, TAKE THE CHP immediately after school. that will marry your classical physics with HP.

I assume you have a degree in classical physics. Unless you are just bound and determined, you would be more useful in the engineering branch, doing FSAR, Crit Safety, Design and analysis, Fuel management, core configuration, weapons design etc.

[grantime]

one comment about the engineering pathway.  When I was in school I was told that employers will consider a physics degree the equivelent (or maybe better) to engineering degree.  Real world or at least nuclear world...   Engineers look down on anyone whose degree doesn't say engineer.  Without engineering degree you wont(at least at plants I've worked) be considered for any job that has engineer in title.  Maybe different other places...

[alphadude]

all you gotta to do is get a PE cert then tell the "engineers" to pack sand. All if not most states will accept your degree towards the PE cert.  Hard science degrees such as physics are sought after by DOE. Power companies are toooooo stuck on Big 10 schools etc because thats who runs them, so they want clones of themselves.