Glenn Holland
- Joined Dec 26, 2014
- 703
I recall that Westinghouse was bought by Toshiba and Westinghouse may be filing for Chapter 11. Although the nuclear industry is dead in the water, there are still quite a few plants that are still operating world wide.The US nuclear power industry is in an interesting state of flux. There were a huge number of nuclear power engineers in the 1980s then the industry shrunk after Three Mile Island and Chernoble. After that, fewer people graduate until the resurgence of nuclear power in 2005 - 2012. After Fukishima, the power industry shrunk back to 2005 levels and the recent graduates (recent hires) were first to be laid off from GE, Westinghouse Nuclear Power and the various companies that support these two (plus the French Giant - Areva).
That said, these companies need to replace retiring engineers and, most importantly, fuel design engineers. Unfortunately, few are left in the industry. The fuel engineers I know have been offered high paying contracts to come out of retirement. Interestingly, both are from Romania.
I suggest you consider leaving Romania and take your close-to-PhD education and apply for positions at the big 3 power plant maintenance/refueling companies - Westinghouse Nuclear Power, GE, Areva).
I don't believe so called "Green Energy" will make up for all the nuclear plants still operating and they should be kept on line as long as possible.