Licensing Manager - Recycling

Description

SHINE is seeking the licensing leader for our used nuclear fuel (UNF) Recycling product line. The US has more than 95,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel and nowhere to put it. This role leads the licensing necessary to turn it back into energy: both building the licensing team and carrying the Recycling Pilot facility from pre-application engagement through NRC review, license issuance, and into operation.

The Licensing Manager - Recycling is SHINE’s primary interface with regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as it relates to UNF recycling. The role works alongside the Director of Engineering & Chief Engineer – Recycling, who owns the facility’s requirements set; together they turn a graded, first-principles set of requirements into regulatory positions the regulator can accept. The job takes judgment as much as procedure: knowing the difference between what the regulation requires and what precedent assumes, and when to spend regulatory margin and when to hold it.

The base salary range for this position is $160,000 - $200,000 per year plus a comprehensive compensation package. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location.

Duties and Responsibilities:

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

• •Build and lead the Recycling licensing team. Own hiring, development and performance for the licensing staff, and set the standard for the work product they produce: complete, accurate, and defensible.
• •Own licensing scope, schedule and budget for the Pilot facility.
• •Set the tone for a long regulatory engagement. Bring resilience and levity, and judgment about which issues are worth contesting.
• •Ensure alignment between technical and licensing deliverables, and between the licensing schedule and the engineering schedule.

Own the Licensing Strategy and the Regulatory Interface

• •Define, develop, and execute SHINE’s licensing strategy for UNF recycling: the licensing pathway, the regulatory engagement plan, and the sequencing of pre-application engagement, application, and review.
• •Partner with the Director of Engineering & Chief Engineer to develop defensible regulatory positions: translate the graded requirements set into positions the regulator can accept, propose creative alternatives, and carry them to the NRC.
• •Weigh risk against benefit explicitly on licensing decisions, and do not commit SHINE to requirements that cannot be justified. Hold positions under pressure when the evidence supports them, and change them quickly when it does not.
• •Own licensing correspondence to regulatory agencies (e.g., license applications, amendment requests, application supplements, responses to requests for additional information, exemption requests). Set the standard for completeness and accuracy and hold the team to it.
• •Own the Recycling licensing basis, including the Safety Analysis Reports for SHINE facilities licensed under 10 CFR Part 50 or 10 CFR Part 70 and the programs described therein.
• •Plan and lead pre-application regulatory engagements, regulatory reviews, and oversight activities with the NRC and other regulatory agencies.
• •Ensure documentation developed by regulatory agencies (e.g., Safety Evaluation Reports, Inspection Reports) is accurate and consistent with the applicable SHINE licensing basis.
• •Prepare and deliver licensing presentations to internal and external organizations.
• •Lead resolution of key strategic licensing issues.
• •Participate in industry-led and regulator-led regulatory activities, including rulemaking and guidance development that affect UNF recycling.
• •Identify and evaluate key licensing risks, develop solutions, and communicate them to senior management.
• •As the facility approaches operation, build the program that oversees compliance with license conditions and applicable regulations.

Success in the First Eighteen Months:

• •A construction permit application (or equivalent) for the Pilot facility has been submitted to the NRC or DOE.
• •A licensing team is hired, retained, and produced that application to a defined standard.

Requirements

Required Qualifications:

• •Evidence of leading a licensing action to a decision: has owned an NRC, Agreement State, or DOE submittal from strategy through issuance and can say what they would do differently.
• •Evidence of building or leading a licensing or regulatory team: staff this person recruited or developed, who stayed. Evidence of holding a hiring bar under pressure.
• •Demonstrated judgment on regulatory conservatism: has challenged a default requirement or a precedent, found a path that was as safe or safer and materially faster or less expensive, and obtained regulator acceptance of it.
• •Ability to critically evaluate information, and the confidence to ask questions when things do not make sense.
• •Ability to think strategically and take decisive action once the necessary information has been gathered.
• •Ability to navigate a large, interconnected set of regulatory requirements and guidance and identify which of them apply, which do not, and which can be challenged.
• •Demonstrated knowledge of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), with an emphasis on 10 CFR Part 50 or 10 CFR Part 70 and the regulatory guidance applicable to fuel cycle facilities, and of NRC and Agreement State licensing processes; or the DOE equivalents (10 CFR Part 830 safety basis requirements and the DOE safety basis review and approval process).
• •Ability to communicate effectively with all levels within the organization, as well as interface with regulators, contractors, and suppliers.
• •Bachelor’s degree in engineering, scientific discipline, or related field, or equivalent experience such as a Senior Reactor Operator License or the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.
• •7+ years of nuclear experience in regulatory affairs, engineering, operations, or quality assurance, including experience leading licensing work.

Preferred Qualifications:

• •Experience licensing a new nuclear facility — under any part of 10 CFR or the DOE framework — rather than amending an existing license.
• •Experience under both the NRC and DOE regulatory frameworks.
• •Knowledge of nuclear fuel cycle processes, in particular aqueous separations.
• •Experience with pre-application engagement and topical reports for novel facility designs.
• •Experience participating in NRC rulemaking or industry regulatory initiatives.

Working Conditions and Physical Effort:

• •Ability to remain in a stationary position (e.g., standing or sitting) for extended periods.
• •Ability to move within facility environments.
• •Ability to handle standard equipment and materials weighing up to 50 pounds with or without reasonable accommodation.
• •Work may occasionally take place in controlled radiation areas under supervision and within regulatory exposure limits.
• •Use of personal protective equipment (PPE).
• •Work possibly involves moderate exposure to unusual elements, such as extreme temperatures, dirt, dust, fumes, smoke, unpleasant odors, and/or loud noises.
• •Work environment involves some exposure to hazards or physical risks, which require following basic safety precautions.

Employees must be able to perform the essential functions of the position satisfactorily. If requested, reasonable accommodations will be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this job, absent undue hardship.

Eligibility for employment is conditioned on the applicant’s ability to qualify for access to information subject to U.S. Export Controls. Additionally, applicant’s eligibility may be conditioned based upon meeting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements for access to Safeguards Information, which typically requires a pre-employment drug screen, fingerprinting and criminal background check.

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