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Nuclear reactor controller Jonathan Gonzales outlines daily duties and safety focus
Summary
Jonathan Gonzales, a nuclear reactor controller, described arriving early for shift turnovers, hands-on work in the reactor bay and chemistry lab, the central role of radiological control technicians (RCTs) in worker protection, and referred to "Hiper" as a cutting-edge capability but did not define it in the interview.
Jonathan Gonzales introduced himself as a nuclear reactor controller and described how his shifts begin with reviewing plant conditions and talking with the previous shift to hand over critical information. "No no day is the exact same," he said, adding that operators often arrive early to turn over and review work.
Gonzales described the hands-on nature of his work: "execute work, whether that be out in the reactor bay, down on the Ground Floor doing chemistry, tearing down the reactor cores down to its bare bones, and then building it back up." He said those tasks support research and production, including isotope creation.
He emphasized safety as the facility's core mission: "to operate and operate safely. It pervades everything we do, and everybody here live lives and breathes it. That's our nuclear safety culture." Gonzales called reactors "high hazard" facilities and said operations require specially trained staff. "Currently, all our operations staff is from that nuclear Navy. They're the heart of this place," he said.
On worker protection, Gonzales described the role of RCTs, or radiological control technicians: "we're here to monitor and protect the workers from hazardous radiation... either helping them with the planning or actually covering the job, communicating the hazards, you know, following those, you know, safe conduct of research principles." He credited RCTs with being involved at every step of high-hazard work to reduce risk.
Gonzales also said, "Hiper is still cutting edge in terms of the capabilities it can produce," but did not define "Hiper" in the interview transcript.
The interview presents a first-person account of daily operations, staffing and safety practices; it did not include independent verification of claims about staffing sources or technical capabilities. No formal actions or decisions were recorded during the conversation.
