Senior Molten Salt Engineer

Description

SHINE is seeking a Senior Molten Salt Engineer to support two of our product lines: transmutation of used nuclear fuel (UNF) and fusion power. The US has more than 95,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel and nowhere to put it; transmutation reduces the long‑lifed actinides that drive its long‑term radio toxicity. Fusion power plants need a blanket that breeds its own tritium and carries heat out of the machine.

Both depend on molten salts – chlorides for transmutation, fluorides for the fusion blanket – and on engineers who can make them pure, keep them that way at temperature, and keep them from corroding the systems that hold them.

The Senior Molten Salt Engineer owns SHINE’s molten salt capability, from the glovebox to the pilot system. Key responsibilities include preparing and purifying chloride and fluoride salts; designing, building, and operating salt test loops and experimental rigs; generating the salt chemistry, property, and materials data that the designs depend on; and turning those results into design requirements for the transmutation and fusion blanket systems.

The role then carries salt‑wet systems through preliminary and detailed design, working with SHINE R&D, the design team, and vendors, and participates in acceptance testing and commissioning.

The job takes judgment as much as method. Design at SHINE is expected to be as simple as it can safely be made. In molten salt work, that means testing early, letting data rather than assumption set the requirements on salt chemistry, materials, and components, and saying so when a requirement is not earning its keep – to the Chief Engineer, to licensing, and to vendors.

Hybrid work arrangement will be considered; however, this role requires regular onsite presence for laboratory and test work. Our key facilities are in Janesville and Fitchburg, WI. Candidates may be asked to travel occasionally for team meetings, partner laboratory work, or vendor engagements, depending on business needs.

The base salary range for this position is $100,000 - $120,000 per year plus a comprehensive compensation package. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location.

Specific duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Develop and maintain methods for synthesis, purification, and handling of chloride salts (e.g., NaCl–MgCl₂, KCl–MgCl₂, and actinide‑bearing chlorides) and fluoride salts (e.g., FLiBe, FLiNaK), including moisture and oxygen control under inert atmosphere.
• Design, build, and operate glovebox‑scale experiments and flowing salt test loops, including heaters and trace heating, freeze/thaw management, circulation, valves, instrumentation, and cover‑gas systems.
• Establish salt chemistry and redox control, and the analytical methods to verify it (e.g., electrochemical redox monitoring, ICP‑based impurity analysis, oxide and moisture measurement).
• Plan and execute corrosion and materials compatibility testing of candidate structural alloys in chloride and fluoride salts, and work with materials specialists to interpret the results.
• Measure or obtain the thermophysical and chemical property data needed for design (e.g., liquidus, density, viscosity, heat capacity, thermal conductivity, actinide and fission product solubility), and document their pedigree.
• For fusion blanket salts, support tritium breeding and extraction development, including tritium solubility, permeation, and removal from salt and cover gas.
• Work initially with depleted uranium and non‑radioactive surrogates, and develop the handling approach for radioactive salts as the programs advance.

• Own the process design of assigned salt…