alt Hacker NewsI would expect anyone calling themselves an engineer of any field to understand basics of fission power generation. Come on, it's 7th (school) grade material.
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Being familiar with the basics of fission power generation does not put the design of a competitive plant within your wheelhouse.
By that standard, I could've been an astronaut at that age.
Newton's laws of motions are not hard. Making a rocket that doesn't kill the occupant, is.
I went to a decent high school, this was not something covered in 7th grade. It isn't covered in my daughter's school either.
For the 2026 version of me out there, please ignore. It is nerd posturing, and as real as the boomers at your gym claiming to have benched 225/315/405 in high school, despite having terrible form while doing 185.
Basics yes, details no, and if you are deep in a mathematical proof the details matter. For example, I seriously doubt you will find an average 7th grader (or even a professional engineer outside of the nuclear power field) able to give you a good explanation or even definition of the void coefficient, and how it may interact with the fuel temperature coefficient of reactivity for a particular reactor design. Do you?