---
title: "Nuclear Monitoring Technician"
description: "Collect and test samples to monitor results of nuclear experiments and contamination of humans, facilities, and environment."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/nuclear-monitoring-technician"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Nuclear Monitoring Technician

**Category:** Life, Physical, and Social Science · **SOC code:** 19-4051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 19-4051.02

Collect and test samples to monitor results of nuclear experiments and contamination of humans, facilities, and environment.

Also advertised as: Health Physics Technician (HP Tech); Nuclear Chemistry Technician; Radiation Control Technician (Radcon Technician); Radiation Protection Specialist (RP Specialist); Radiation Protection Technician (RPT); Radiation Technician; Radiochemical Technician.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $110,240 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $53.00/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $73,150 to $133,600, with the middle half between $99,110 and $123,990
- **Total US employment:** 6,470
- **Typical entry education:** Associate's
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 36/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 6,470 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $73,150 |
| 25th | $99,110 |
| 50th (median) | $110,240 |
| 75th | $123,990 |
| 90th | $133,600 |
| Mean (average) | $108,940 |

### Pay by state

The 14 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| FL | $135,550 | $131,075 | 60 |
| NY | $129,780 | $120,255 | 260 |
| PA | $124,070 | $127,157 | 310 |
| TX | $124,060 | $127,822 | 110 |
| MA | $113,390 | $107,217 | 50 |
| NC | $110,430 | $117,073 | 420 |
| IL | $110,390 | $110,436 | 780 |
| AL | $110,240 | $124,112 | 280 |
| SC | $108,490 | $115,724 | 750 |
| WA | $108,200 | $101,109 | 90 |
| MO | $104,580 | $115,155 | 150 |
| CA | $99,270 | $89,659 | Not published by BLS |
| VA | $98,930 | $97,850 | 680 |
| TN | $91,980 | $100,120 | 110 |

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 6,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 6,800 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 100 jobs, or +1.1%. Slower than average: 1.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 900 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Associate's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 29.4% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 27.2% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 16.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 15.9% |
| Some College Courses | 11.1% |

## What the work involves

- Collect samples of air, water, gases, or solids to determine radioactivity levels of contamination.
- Determine intensities and types of radiation in work areas, equipment, or materials, using radiation detectors or other instruments.
- Provide initial response to abnormal events or to alarms from radiation monitoring equipment.
- Analyze samples, such as air or water samples, for contaminants or other elements.
- Inform supervisors when individual exposures or area radiation levels approach maximum permissible limits.
- Brief workers on radiation levels in work areas.
- Place radioactive waste, such as sweepings or broken sample bottles, into containers for shipping or disposal.
- Determine or recommend radioactive decontamination procedures, according to the size and nature of equipment and the degree of contamination.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mathematics — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Physics — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.10 |
| C — Conventional | 5.51 |
| I — Investigative | 4.43 |
| S — Social | 1.90 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.53 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 94.6 |
| ISTP | 80.4 |
| ISFJ | 76.3 |
| ESTJ | 73.3 |
| INTJ | 73.2 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Nuclear Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nuclear-technician) — median $110,240
- [Nuclear Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nuclear-engineer) — median $133,970
- [Environmental Science and Protection Technician, Including Health](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-science-and-protection-technician) — median $55,090
- [Nuclear Medicine Technologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nuclear-medicine-technologist) — median $101,370
- [Nuclear Power Reactor Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nuclear-power-reactor-operator) — median $122,890
- [Calibration Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/calibration-technologist-and-technician) — median $67,820
- [Environmental Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $59,920
- [Chemical Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chemical-technician) — median $60,390
- [Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-and-clinical-laboratory-technician) — median $62,930
- [Occupational Health and Safety Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/occupational-health-and-safety-technician) — median $61,560

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

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