Within ONR, we assess and inspect the ability of Control and Instrumentation (C&I) systems to satisfactorily perform safety roles in nuclear applications under a range of operating conditions.
We use international standards and guidance and established relevant good practice to determine that risks arising from the failure of C&I systems, or their maloperation, has been reduced, so far as is reasonably practicable.
ONR is looking for experts with good experience of high integrity C&I system design and failure causes, but knowledge of the practical challenges of all parts of the system lifecycle, including installation, commissioning, maintenance, modification and replacement would be very beneficial. The ability to articulate the purpose of techniques to avoid and contain failures through architectural measures such as use of redundancy, diversity, separation and segregation, etc. would be advantageous. An understanding of modern analysis techniques, such as those specified in BS IEC 61508, is required and an ability to communicate the challenges associated with complex C&I-based safety systems to a wider group of nuclear inspectors from other disciplines.
We are also looking for experts who have knowledge and experience in the design and safety analysis of hardware and/or software of high integrity safety systems up to safety integrity level (SIL) 4 for nuclear chemical processing or defence facilities and Class 1 to 3 systems for nuclear power plants. Similar experience on high-hazard plant or work on mission critical facilities would also be considered.
For applicants with software engineering expertise, we require a good understanding of modern static and dynamic analysis software techniques. For applicants with hardware expertise, we require a good understanding of concepts associated with functional safety, such as safe failure fraction and the role of diagnostics. It would be an advantage for applicants to have some knowledge and experience of probabilistic analysis techniques such as reliability block diagrams, fault trees, event trees and FMEA techniques.
As well as providing guidance and advice within your specialism, you would be expected to be able to perform technical assessment of safety system aspects of safety cases and make judgements, with support from other specialist inspectors as appropriate
Experience
We are looking for people with specialist knowledge and experience in one (or more) of the following areas:
- Experience in nuclear, other high-hazard or mission critical facilities in the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of C&I based safety systems as defined in BS IEC 61508 or BS IEC 61226;
- Industrial experience similar to the above, in the application and use of software based systems and/or systems based on complex programmable logic devices requiring good experience in software and/or hardware based techniques;
- Knowledge of safety issues associated with nuclear reactors' Class 1 - 3 safety systems, of safety engineering principles and their practical application and of demonstrating a chain of reasoning going from claims to arguments to evidence in a safety case;
- Knowledge of the special problems associated with achieving and demonstrating specified SILs for computer-based systems and in particular, experience in the application of techniques to overcome the problems of justifying the safety of complex systems; and
- Knowledge of codes and standards applicable to the above points.
How to apply
Please visit our recruitment portal.