---
title: "Nuclear Technician"
description: "Assist nuclear physicists, nuclear engineers, or other scientists in laboratory, power generation, or electricity production activities. May operate…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/nuclear-technician"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Nuclear Technician

**Category:** Life, Physical, and Social Science · **SOC code:** 19-4051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 19-4051.00

Assist nuclear physicists, nuclear engineers, or other scientists in laboratory, power generation, or electricity production activities. May operate, maintain, or provide quality control for nuclear testing and research equipment. May monitor radiation.

Also advertised as: Auxiliary Operator; Equipment Operator; Licensed Nuclear Operator; Non-Licensed Nuclear Equipment Operator (NLO); Non-Licensed Nuclear Plant Operator (NLO); Nuclear Auxiliary Operator; Nuclear Equipment Operator (NEO); Nuclear Plant Equipment Operator (NAPEO).

## 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:** 37/100 — 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.

## What the work involves

- Test plant equipment to ensure it is operating properly.
- Follow nuclear equipment operational policies and procedures that ensure environmental safety.
- Follow policies and procedures for radiation workers to ensure personnel safety.
- Conduct surveillance testing to determine safety of nuclear equipment.
- Apply safety tags to equipment needing maintenance.
- Monitor nuclear reactor equipment performance to identify operational inefficiencies, hazards, or needs for maintenance or repair.
- Modify, devise, or maintain nuclear equipment used in operations.
- Determine or recommend radioactive decontamination procedures, according to the size and nature of equipment and the degree of contamination.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.9 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 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Public Safety and Security — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Physics — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.6 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 | 5.75 |
| C — Conventional | 5.07 |
| I — Investigative | 4.57 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.26 |
| S — Social | 1.83 |
| 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 | 94.0 |
| ISTP | 81.0 |
| ESTJ | 74.2 |
| ISFJ | 73.6 |
| INTJ | 73.4 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Nuclear Power Reactor Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nuclear-power-reactor-operator) — median $122,890
- [Nuclear Monitoring Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nuclear-monitoring-technician) — median $110,240
- [Power Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-plant-operator) — median $102,040
- [Stationary Engineer and Boiler Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stationary-engineer-and-boiler-operator) — median $78,620
- [Hydroelectric Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hydroelectric-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Biomass Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biomass-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Geothermal Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/geothermal-technician) — median $49,230
- [Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aerospace-engineering-and-operations-technologist-and-technician) — median $82,890
- [Power Distributor and Dispatcher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-distributor-and-dispatcher) — median $106,730
- [Calibration Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/calibration-technologist-and-technician) — median $67,820

## 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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