{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/nuclear-power-reactor-operators/",
  "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 Power Reactor Operators",
    "soc_code": "51-8011",
    "category": "Production",
    "us_employment": 5150,
    "median_annual_wage": 122890
  },
  "verdict": "SAFE",
  "risk_resistance": 70,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 12,
    "embodiment": 11,
    "liability_shield": 19,
    "trust_premium": 11,
    "judgment_accountability": 17
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "Steady-state load-following, rod position adjustment, and turbine synchronization are already digitally controlled in newer plants, but transient response — diagnosing a conflicting alarm cascade, deciding whether to trip or ride out a feedwater upset, executing EOP transitions when symptoms don't match the flowchart — keeps roughly half the job resistant, which is why this lands at 12 rather than in the safe teens.",
    "embodiment": "Most of the shift is in a seated control-room panel or simulator, but operators still perform surveillance walkdowns in the containment and turbine building, manually stroke and tag valves for lineups, hang clearances, and physically operate local controls during loss-of-control-room scenarios — real hands-on work in radiological and high-noise areas, just not the majority of hours, hence 11.",
    "liability_shield": "An NRC Reactor Operator or Senior Reactor Operator licence under 10 CFR Part 55 is issued to a named individual after a written exam, operating test, and medical certification, requires biennial renewal and continuing requalification, and can be revoked or criminally enforced against that person for a deliberate misconduct violation — you cannot legally manipulate the controls without it, which is close to the ceiling at 19.",
    "trust_premium": "The relationship that matters is inside the crew and up the chain — the shift supervisor's confidence in your panel calls, peer checks and concurrent verification, and NRC resident inspectors' assessment of your requalification performance — but there is no external client choosing you by name, so 11 rather than the high teens.",
    "judgment_accountability": "During an unanalyzed event the licensed operator invokes 10 CFR 50.54(x) authority to depart from licence conditions to protect public health, and routinely makes trip/no-trip and safety-system-actuation calls under minutes of time pressure with core damage as the downside — 17 reflects that the consequences are civilization-scale even though EOPs and AOPs constrain much of the decision space."
  },
  "rationale": "Much of the shift is instrument monitoring, log-keeping, and procedure-following that automation already handles or could — reactor control systems are heavily instrumented and self-regulating by design. What protects the job is NRC 10 CFR Part 55: a licensed human operator must be at the controls, personally accountable for reactivity manipulations, and answerable in a way no algorithm can be. Add plant walkdowns, valve lineups, and abnormal-transient judgment where procedures conflict, and displacement risk is low even as headcount per unit slowly falls.",
  "outlook": "Employment stays small and roughly flat with a modest per-unit headcount decline as digital I&C spreads, but NRC licensing keeps humans in the control room through the 2030s, with new SMR builds adding openings.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "NRC codifying operator-licensing requirements for advanced/SMR designs rather than granting reduced-staffing exemptions — i.e. if the Part 50.54(m) minimum-staffing rulemaking and the 10 CFR 53 Part 53 licensing framework for non-light-water reactors end up requiring a licensed senior reactor operator at the controls per unit regardless of autonomous control credit, and explicitly bar AI systems from crediting as an operator. The countervailing case is already visible: NuScale's approved 6-units-per-control-room staffing and the ADVANCE Act's push toward reduced staffing.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 1
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "If NRC or INPO guidance formally assigns the licensed operator the duty to accept, reject, or override recommendations from digital/AI-based control and diagnostic systems — a named human as the deciding authority for automation disagreement during transients, analogous to the operator-authority provisions in digital I&C upgrade licensing (e.g. Diablo Canyon/Hatch DCS reviews) — the role's ambiguity ownership becomes explicit rather than implicit.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 2
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Genuine two-tier structure: if log-keeping, surveillance-test scheduling, procedure retrieval, and trend monitoring are absorbed by digital I&C and computerized procedure systems, the residual shift is abnormal-transient diagnosis, conflicting-procedure resolution, and reactivity manipulation under degraded instrumentation. Headcount per unit falls but the remaining job is harder to automate. Watch for utilities deploying computer-based procedures under NUREG-0711 human-factors review.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "embodiment",
        "change": "If the fleet shift toward life-extension of aging units (80-year license renewals at Peach Bottom, Surry, Oconee) increases the frequency of degraded-equipment walkdowns, manual valve lineups, and local operation of components with failed remote actuators, the unpredictable-physical share of the shift rises.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 2
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Trust premium has no realistic route — ratepayers and grid operators do not choose a plant because humans run it, and no buyer-facing preference exists to monetize. The dominant risk here is not AI capability but NRC-sanctioned staffing reduction: the ADVANCE Act and SMR multi-unit control room approvals cut operators per megawatt without touching any of these dimension scores, so the occupation can stay 'safe' per-worker while total employment falls."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 6010,
        "wage": 93370
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 6280,
        "wage": 94350
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 5050,
        "wage": 100530
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 5310,
        "wage": 104040
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 4820,
        "wage": 104260
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 5450,
        "wage": 115870
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 5760,
        "wage": 120350
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 5720,
        "wage": 122610
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 5150,
        "wage": 122890
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": -14.3,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}