I have a dirty job that you will find interesting. I have worked in the nuclear industry for the past 17 years. I have done several different nuclear related jobs in that time frame. I have one in particular that I would like to recommend. You need to enjoy the experience of defueling a reactor. When the used fuel rods are moved out of the reactor into the "canal" as it is called they are a site to see. The canal is a pool of water located adjacent to the pressure vessel. The blue glow emitted by the fuel rods is something called Cherenkov radiation. They glow blue because they are screaming hot! They are very pretty to look at, but their luster quickly fades because the job of moving them is a drag.
I spent 14 years of my life at the Advanced Test Reactor in Idaho. The ATR is the largest test reactor in the world. The majority of the tests performed there are done for the U.S. Navy. Our nuclear navy wouldn't be the awesome force it is without the experiments performed at the ATR. The October 2006 issue of Popular Mechanics did a story about the ATR. You should go to their website and read it. The article is very informative.
You will need to contact the Department of Energy at the Idaho National Laboratory if you choose to do a story on defueling the ATR. Once you obtain permission, I suggest that you contact my buddy Tad Haight. He still works at the reactor. He could be your mentor. You and your audience will love Tad's cynical and slightly evil sense of humor. He is famous for a quote that he used to describe typical government workers. "Never have so many, done so little, for so much."
Tad and I are known as Radiological Control Technicians. Workers just call us RCTs. In our profession we protect nuclear workers and the public from radiation. During a defueling operation RCTs keep an eye on the radiation emitted by the spent fuel as it is removed from the reactor to insure the safety of the operation. You might find operating radiation detection instruments rather interesting. It is not a very exiting job. However, you know in the back of your mind, that if a nuclear emergency were to somehow occur, the lives of your co-workers are in your hands. You have to be prepared to make important decisions very quickly.
Our job is easier than the operators who move the fuel. The fuel rods are submerged in 18 feet or so of water. The water shields the workers from the intensely radioactive fuel. The Operators work with tools that are over 20 feet long. It is a difficult task moving these fuel rods with such long ungainly tools, but they manage to do it. You need to give it a try. The operators who move the fuel make it look easy.
The worst part of the job is the timing. Defueling is almost always done on the night shift in the wee hours of the morning. The goal is to have the reactor defueled before the main work force arrives at 8:00 AM. Fatigue is always a factor.
To stay awake a couple of canal operators used to sing "Negro Spirituals." It doesn't sound like anything now, but at 2:00 AM when you are exhausted, everything is funny. I hate musicals, but often times I found myself caught in the middle of one. I must confess, the singing helped.
Every fuel rod is inventoried as it is removed from the reactor and put in a specific storage location. Each rod has a unique number engraved on it. Sometimes those numbers are hard to read underwater and the operators have to view them through binoculars. The clock ticks ever so slowly when they get a rod that is difficult to read.
Anyway, you need to check it out. I don't think that anyone has ever done such a story. I think that your audience will really enjoy it because it is so far removed from anything that your typical viewer has ever seen or done.
I currently work at a facility in Utah that buries low-level nuclear waste. My current job isn't nearly as glamorous or as interesting as reactor work. Someday you may want to do a story on burying radioactive waste, but for the present, working at the reactor will be more appealing to your audience.
Thanks for your time. I have an idea for another dirty job, moving sprinkler pipe, but I will save that for later.
