Nuclear Engineering Radiation Risks?

[Legendofdeep]

Around how many Sv would a nuclear engineer receive annually? How fatal would it be?

 

[Drakkith]

Very little actually. How fatal would it be? 100% if they died from it obviously, but it should never ever get anywhere close to being dangerous unless there's an accident. I'm betting that the average rate of cancer and other diseases related to radiation is approximately the same for a nuclear engineer that works near a reactor as it is for the average person.

 

[Astronuc]

Around how many Sv would a nuclear engineer receive annually? How fatal would it be?

The exposure would depend on the work one does. If one worked in a corporate office, it would be the same as anyone in most offices doing other jobs.

If one worked at a nuclear power plant, it would still be quite low, but maybe slightly higher than the person working in an office in the middle of a typical city.

There is a caveat to that: Some buildings may use construction materials, such as granites, which may contain naturally occurring radionuclides. People working very close to such materials would receive a slightly higher does (perhaps a few times normal background).

If one flies in aircraft a lot, the annual exposure to radiation (natural cosmic radiation) would be higher than someone who didn't fly.

If one works in a uranium mine, one's annual exposure would be higher than that of the general public - but it depends on how much time is spent in the mine, on the level of protection, and on the source strength.

Similarly, if one worked on spent fuel at a power plant or a reprocessing facility, one might get more exposure than the average person.

Another caveat: The industry imposes limits on exposure of people working with radiation or radioactive materials.

See - Subpart C--Occupational Dose Limits
Source: 56 FR 23396, May 21, 1991, unless otherwise noted.
§ 20.1201 Occupational dose limits for adults.
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part020/part020-1201.html

or more generally
PART 20--STANDARDS FOR PROTECTION AGAINST RADIATION
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part020/

 

[tehfrr]

No more than natural background for this nuclear engineer. All I do is sit in front of a computer all day, I don't get near anything radioactive (or see anything interesting)

 

[Legendofdeep]

No more than natural background for this nuclear engineer. All I do is sit in front of a computer all day, I don't get near anything radioactive (or see anything interesting)

This is off topic but all you do is work on a computer to find uses for nuclear fission? How does the salary compare for someone who works in a plant than someone working in an office?

 

[tehfrr]

I do criticality safety analysis, look at fuel pellet and absorber performance, and support some detector systems. I ended up at at a national lab with a BS/MS in nuclear engineering. They give me mid 70's but also DOE froze salaries for 2 years. Its a good gig but I am pretty unhappy with it. When I was in school I pictured myself dressed in PPE & hard hat looking at systems in person, not spending all day every day in front of a computer looking at models of things I will probably never see in person.