{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/nuclear-engineers/",
  "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology",
  "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.",
  "scored_at": "2026-08-11",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "occupation": {
    "title": "Nuclear Engineers",
    "soc_code": "17-2161",
    "category": "Engineering",
    "us_employment": 15280,
    "median_annual_wage": 133970
  },
  "verdict": "EXPOSED",
  "risk_resistance": 57,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 12,
    "embodiment": 9,
    "liability_shield": 13,
    "trust_premium": 8,
    "judgment_accountability": 15
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "At 12 rather than 8, MCNP/RELAP5 input decks, 10 CFR 50.59 screening write-ups, and Chapter 15 accident-analysis chapters are all templated enough that AI drafts credible first passes, but reconciling code output against as-built plant configuration, resolving NRC requests for additional information, and interpreting anomalous core-follow or dosimetry data still require someone who has walked the containment.",
    "embodiment": "A 9 reflects the split: most weeks are at a workstation, but fuel-shuffle oversight, in-containment shielding walkdowns during refueling outages, ALARA planning at the job site, and hot-cell or reactor-bay work under an RWP put you in a radiological area with a TLD on your badge — controlled environments, not a rooftop or a trench, which is why it isn't 14.",
    "liability_shield": "13 comes from the PE stamp on safety-related design and NRC-recognized roles — the licensing basis submittal names a responsible engineer, and 10 CFR Part 21 defect reporting attaches personally — but a large share of nuclear engineers work under a utility's or vendor's Appendix B quality program without ever stamping a drawing, which caps it well below the 18-20 of a structural PE.",
    "trust_premium": "At 8, your NRC project manager, the plant's licensing lead, and the fuel vendor know you by name across multi-year license amendment and reload cycles, and that continuity matters when defending an assumption — but the deliverable is a calculation package that any qualified reviewer can verify, so the relationship supports the work rather than being the work.",
    "judgment_accountability": "15 is earned on calls like whether a degraded ECCS condition is still within the licensing basis, whether a 50.59 change needs a license amendment, and what margin to accept on peak clad temperature — decisions made in the gap between code output and reality, where being wrong is a radiological release and the regulator will ask you personally to defend the assumption."
  },
  "rationale": "Much of the daily work is document- and code-heavy: writing safety analysis reports, assembling NRC licensing submittals, running neutronics and thermal-hydraulic codes, and tracking design changes — all areas where AI already drafts, cross-references regulations, and sets up parameter studies competently. What resists is the accountable engineering judgment: validating that a model matches a physical plant, defending assumptions to the NRC, and signing off on decisions where the failure mode is a radiological release. Plant-side work — outage support, walkdowns, radiation shielding verification, fuel handling oversight — keeps a real physical component that robotics cannot cover.",
  "outlook": "Demand rises with SMR and reactor-life-extension programs even as AI absorbs the report-writing and simulation-setup hours, so the job shifts toward licensing defense, validation, and on-site accountability rather than shrinking.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "NRC guidance or a rule change (e.g., an update to 10 CFR 50 Appendix B / NQA-1 quality assurance requirements, or an RIS on AI use in licensing submittals) that requires a named licensed Professional Engineer or designated Responsible Engineer to personally attest that AI-generated safety analysis, code inputs, and 50.59 evaluations were independently verified — with individual accountability under NRC enforcement and 10 CFR 50.9 completeness-and-accuracy obligations",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "State licensure boards closing the industrial exemption that lets many nuclear engineers work unstamped: if states following NCEES model law require PE stamps on nuclear safety-related design documents, sign-off becomes a personally liable act rather than a corporate one",
        "plausibility": "unlikely",
        "would_add": 2
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "SMR and advanced-reactor licensing (NuScale, TerraPower, X-energy) creating first-of-a-kind design work where codes are unvalidated against any operating plant — the accountable call becomes justifying model applicability and defending novel assumptions in ACRS hearings, which AI cannot own",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Task-mix shift: as AI absorbs SAR drafting, regulatory cross-referencing, and parameter-study setup, the residual role concentrates in code validation against plant data, benchmarking, uncertainty quantification, and NRC RAI defense — a genuinely two-tier occupation where the surviving tier is the judgment tier",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "embodiment",
        "change": "A construction wave of new-build reactors shifting headcount toward field engineering, ITAAC verification, startup testing, and as-built walkdowns — physical, unstructured plant work rather than desk analysis",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Trust premium has no realistic route: the buyer is a utility or the NRC, and neither pays for human authorship as such — they pay for a defensible signature, which is the liability lever, not a trust premium. Embodiment gains are cyclical and tied to construction, so they can reverse."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 16700,
        "wage": 105810
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 15980,
        "wage": 107600
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 15850,
        "wage": 113460
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 15700,
        "wage": 116140
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 12670,
        "wage": 120380
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 12250,
        "wage": 122480
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 12710,
        "wage": 125460
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 14740,
        "wage": 127520
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 15280,
        "wage": 133970
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": -8.5,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [
    {
      "slug": "nuclear-power-reactor-operators",
      "title": "Nuclear Power Reactor Operators",
      "verdict": "SAFE",
      "risk_resistance": 70,
      "median_wage": 122890,
      "overlap": 64,
      "skills_to_close": [
        "Operation and Control"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}