Education/Certifications:
Bachelor of Science of Nuclear Engineering with a minor in Radiological Health Engineering
Employment:
Vistra Corp., Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant, Core Performance Engineer and Fuel Performance Engineer
Why did you choose the nuclear field or how did you end up in the nuclear field?
My journey to becoming a nuclear engineer began with my high school debate team, when one year’s topic was on energy sources for our nation. After researching the pros and cons of all energy sources, I became convinced that nuclear was the best energy option available. My interest probably would have ended there, but the disconnect between the facts and public perception of nuclear energy drew me in and made me want to contribute to the industry. So I chose to study nuclear engineering at Texas A&M University. Three summer internships at Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant while I was in college confirmed my interest in working at a nuclear power plant, and I started full time at Comanche Peak after graduation.
Why did you join U.S. Women in Nuclear?
The summer after my freshman year of college, I attended the U.S. WIN Conference through U.S. WIN’s sponsored student program, and I was blown away by the energy and passion of the hundreds of women there, who were enthusiastic about their role in making the industry the best it could be by growing personally and professionally, and also passionate about the important ways nuclear benefits their local communities and the environment. That experience helped encourage me to continue studying nuclear engineering. I returned to Texas A&M and helped start a student chapter of U.S. WIN there in 2010. I loved the public outreach we were able to accomplish with other students on campus. In 2012 I started volunteering with the U.S. WIN national Communications Committee because they needed a volunteer to run the U.S. WIN Facebook page, and I thought it would be a fun way to share information on nuclear energy with the public. And I did have fun! After many years on Comm Comm, including a term as chair of the committee, I was asked to serve on the U.S. WIN Steering Committee in 2020, where I currently serve as the executive sponsor of the Communications Committee and the U.S. WIN representative to the Atomic Allies. The years on Comm Comm and Steering Committee have brought so many friendships, and it has been so rewarding to support the incredible new programs and initiatives U.S. WIN has developed in recent years. I’m really proud of what our organization is working for, and what we have already accomplished!
What do you think is the most important benefit of nuclear science, technology, or energy and why?
The carbon-free nature of nuclear energy is just the beginning of the environmental benefits of nuclear energy. It also doesn’t emit air emissions, produces more electricity on less land than any other clean air source, and the energy density of the fuel means the volume of fuel, and resulting used fuel, is very low. All while providing energy reliably, with the highest capacity factor of any energy source, and safely, with one of the safest records out of any energy source. My husband and I moved a couple years ago and now the reactor containment domes of Comanche Peak are visible from my one year old daughter’s nursery window. It’s a daily reminder that what I do at work contributes to the clean and reliable energy needed by my family. I also see firsthand the economic benefits for my rural community surrounding the nuclear power plant; for every 100 jobs at nuclear power plants, 66 additional jobs are created in the local community. I truly believe that nuclear energy benefits our local communities, the environment, the economy, and my children’s future.
Is there something about your job that most people are surprised to hear?
Many people are surprised that my occupational radiation exposure over my entire decade long career is less than the radiation exposure I typically acrue from air travel in a given year. I would estimate my dose last year was around 2 millirem, while supporting fuel inspection activities for unpacking of new fuel and packing used fuel into dry casks, compared to the 0.5 millirem anyone gets for every hour they spend on a plane in the air. Background radiation is a natural part of our world, and when you are flying on a plane there is less atmosphere shielding you from cosmic radiation, resulting in a higher radiation dose rate than while on the ground. You can calculate your own personal annual radiation dose at https://www.ans.org/file/1090/radiation_dose_chart.pdf.
Another thing that surprises people is that the reactor going critical isn’t a bad thing, as the phrase is often used in movies or pop culture as a scary thing to avoid. In nuclear power, we use a fission chain reaction to generate the heat that turns water to steam, which spins the turbines that spin the generator to create electricity. Fission occurs when a neutron interacts with a fissile atom, such as uranium, causing the atom to split into two smaller atoms and also resulting in a couple of free neutrons. Those free neutrons can go on to interact with other atoms in our fuel to cause additional fissions to occur. This fission chain reaction is essential to our ability to use fission to generate electricity. We can control the rate of our fission chain reaction by increasing or decreasing the number of free neutrons available to cause fissions. When we are starting up the reactor after a maintenance or refueling outage, we take the reactor supercritical; this just means we are increasing the population of free neutrons to increase the rate of fission to increase how much power our reactor is generating. This allows us to ramp from 0% power to 100% power. When we are holding at a steady power level, the reactor is critical, which means there is an equilibrium population of neutrons and our rate of fission is not increasing or decreasing. And when we need to shut down the reactor for refueling or maintenance, we take the reactor subcritical by inserting control rods and boron into the the core, which are atoms that absorb neutrons without causing a fission, to slow down and stop that chain reaction.
