Nuclear reactor inspector vs reactor engineer

The differences between nuclear reactor inspectors and reactor engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a reactor engineer has an average salary of $98,752, which is higher than the $60,086 average annual salary of a nuclear reactor inspector.

The top three skills for a nuclear reactor inspector include NDE, III and nuclear power. The most important skills for a reactor engineer are DOE, technical specifications, and NRC.

Nuclear reactor inspector vs reactor engineer overview

	Nuclear Reactor Inspector	Reactor Engineer
Yearly salary	$60,086	$98,752
Hourly rate	$28.89	$47.48
Growth rate	-11%	-11%
Number of jobs	19,962	3,227
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 50%	Bachelor's Degree, 82%
Average age	43	43
Years of experience	-	-

Nuclear reactor inspector vs reactor engineer salary

Nuclear reactor inspectors and reactor engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Nuclear Reactor Inspector	Reactor Engineer
Average salary	$60,086	$98,752
Salary range	Between $28,000 And $126,000	Between $67,000 And $144,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	Nevada
Best paying company	-	Expensify
Best paying industry	-	Professional

Differences between nuclear reactor inspector and reactor engineer education

There are a few differences between a nuclear reactor inspector and a reactor engineer in terms of educational background:

	Nuclear Reactor Inspector	Reactor Engineer
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 50%	Bachelor's Degree, 82%
Most common major	Business	Nuclear Engineering
Most common college	Georgia Institute of Technology	Georgia Institute of Technology

Nuclear reactor inspector vs reactor engineer demographics

Here are the differences between nuclear reactor inspectors' and reactor engineers' demographics:

	Nuclear Reactor Inspector	Reactor Engineer
Average age	43	43
Gender ratio	Male, 91.4% Female, 8.6%	Male, 84.6% Female, 15.4%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 10.7% Asian, 17.1% White, 63.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 10.8% Asian, 17.1% White, 62.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	5%	5%

Differences between nuclear reactor inspector and reactor engineer duties and responsibilities

Nuclear reactor inspector example responsibilities.

Manage the implementation of technology for better communicating and displaying radiological data used during emergency response.
Monitor EKG and vitals, deal with emergency situations with patients and work under strict protocols.
Participate in emergency response exercises as part of NRC's incidence response role.
Assess utility report operational events for NRC response.
Generate radiological technology initiatives for new tools and new technologies to improve the process of overhaul.
Perform internal and INPO assessments.

Reactor engineer example responsibilities.

Present recommendations to improve NRC's project management and scheduling practices to achieve realistic and dynamic project schedules.
Manage Jenkins security by providing specific access to authorize developers/testers using project base matrix authorization strategy.
Develop programs and scripts (MATLAB) to effectively postprocess results.
Develop and implement NRC processes and procedures for NRC's project scheduling operations.
Perform physics testing following refueling outage.
Supervise and support the electrical engineering on-call/on-site coverage of outage relate refueling equipment services.

Nuclear reactor inspector vs reactor engineer skills

Common nuclear reactor inspector skills

NDE, 35%
III, 31%
Nuclear Power, 10%
Nuclear Reactor, 8%
Level II, 5%
Destructive Testing, 3%

Common reactor engineer skills

DOE, 70%
Technical Specifications, 9%
NRC, 5%
Nuclear Power, 3%
Engineering Support, 2%
MATLAB, 2%

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Nuclear Reactor Inspector vs Reactor Engineer

Updated January 8, 2025

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