---
title: "Senior Reactor Operator"
description: "Holds an NRC senior operator license to direct reactor operations and supervise the control room crew at a nuclear power plant."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/senior-reactor-operator"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Senior Reactor Operator

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-8011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-8011.00

Holds an NRC senior operator license to direct reactor operations and supervise the control room crew at a nuclear power plant.

Also advertised as: SRO; Licensed Senior Reactor Operator; Shift Supervisor, Nuclear; Control Room Supervisor; Shift Manager, Nuclear.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $122,890 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $59.08/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $98,640 to $149,310, with the middle half between $109,440 and $130,490
- **Total US employment:** 5,150
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -5.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 21/100 — 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 5,150 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $98,640 |
| 25th | $109,440 |
| 50th (median) | $122,890 |
| 75th | $130,490 |
| 90th | $149,310 |
| Mean (average) | $121,380 |

### Pay by state

The 5 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NY | $129,580 | $120,069 | 230 |
| IL | $123,980 | $124,032 | 410 |
| AL | $119,000 | $133,974 | 360 |
| SC | $118,620 | $126,529 | 320 |
| NE | $108,650 | $120,584 | 50 |

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 5,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 4,900 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 300 jobs, or -5.9%. Declining: -5.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 400 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:** High school diploma or equivalent (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:** Long-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 |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 50.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 15.7% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 15.3% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 12.6% |
| Some College Courses | 6.2% |

## What the work involves

- Direct licensed operators in the nuclear plant control room
- Approve changes in reactor power and plant configuration
- Interpret technical specifications and operating limits
- Authorize maintenance and testing on safety-related systems
- Lead the crew through abnormal and emergency procedures
- Supervise fuel handling during refueling outages
- Participate in simulator requalification training and exams
- Review shift logs and turnover plant status to the next crew

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- 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
- Writing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.0 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 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Physics — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 3.4 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
- Written 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
- Information Ordering — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — 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), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.58 |
| C — Conventional | 5.22 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.26 |
| I — Investigative | 3.12 |
| S — Social | 2.07 |
| 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 |
| ESTJ | 84.3 |
| ISFJ | 75.9 |
| ISTP | 73.6 |
| ESTP | 65.0 |

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 Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nuclear-technician) — median $110,240
- [Power Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-plant-operator) — median $102,040
- [Hydroelectric Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hydroelectric-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Nuclear Monitoring Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nuclear-monitoring-technician) — median $110,240
- [Stationary Engineer and Boiler Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stationary-engineer-and-boiler-operator) — median $78,620
- [Chemical Plant and System Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chemical-plant-and-system-operator) — median $78,120
- [Gas Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/gas-plant-operator) — median $87,820
- [Power Distributor and Dispatcher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-distributor-and-dispatcher) — median $106,730
- [Petroleum Pump System Operator, Refinery Operator, and Gauger](https://nuecareer.com/careers/petroleum-pump-system-operator-refinery-operator-and-gauger) — median $96,710

## 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/
- **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

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/senior-reactor-operator