Internship Projects

In this project the intern will help to develop the existing probabilistic model of the Beznau (KKB) Spent Fuel Pool safety analysis. KKB is required to maintain a Probabilistic Safety Assessment of the Spent Fuel Pool (SFP) for the decommissioning phase from final shutdown of the plant until all fuel is removed. The changing nature of the plants’ safety systems after final shutdown has to be reflected in the probabilistic model of the SFP. The intern will help to modify and develop the existing probabilistic risk model of the KKB SFP to reflect the different plant configurations during decommissioning.

Your profile:

• Familiarity with PWR technology in general, proficiency in working autonomously, critical thinking

Working conditions:

• Location: Beznau NPP

• Duration and time constraints: 3-month project

• Extent: Limited to an internship

In the frame of this summer internship project, the student will get familiar with Radiological Consequence Analysis (RCA) for the Beznau nuclear power plant (KKB) while becoming familiar with the Swiss regulatory guidelines. A new RCA software will be used and the intern will be familiarize with it. Dose calculations will be independently performed and technical reports will be prepared. In addition, during this project, the intern will work on spent fuel pool safety analysis for limiting conditions of operation. Focus will be given on both power operation and shutdown conditions in preparation of the final shutdown of the plant.

Your profile:

• Familiarity with PWR technology; Basic Understanding of radiochemistry, activity and dose calculations for radio-isotopes

• Proficiency in working with large datasets; Python Coding skills is a plus

• Good technical writing skills; Fluent in English; German reading skills or willingness to learn German

Working conditions:

• Location: Beznau NPP

• Duration and time constraints: 3-month project

• Extent: Limited to an internship

In the frame of this summer internship project, the student will work in the fuel back-end team of Axpo at the headquarters in Baden. A newly introduced project aims to build internal competencies in technical analyses in the area of storage and transportation casks for spent nuclear fuel. The intern will perform impact analyses on storage casks. The focus will be the impact from a rocket. CAD models are already available and the intern will be involved in the finite element modelling, the calculation and assessment of results and on the technical documentation of the findings. The software ANSYS and Solidworks will be utilized within this project and the intern will have the opportunity to work alongside Axpo’s experts in the area of fuel back-end.

Your profile:

• Experience in transient mechanical analysis

• FEA experience is advantageous, otherwise willingness to learn

• Good technical writing skills; Fluent in English; German would be a plus

Working conditions:

• Location: Axpo HQs in Baden

• Duration and time constraints: 3-month project (Possible from 07/26 to 09/26)

• Extent: Limited to an internship

Within this summer project, the intern will have the opportunity to model with finite element tools the fuel casks used for the Beznau nuclear power plant. The student will verify the thermo-mechanical behavior of highly stressed bolted connections of a dry storage cask. The work will take place at Axpo’s HQs in Baden alongside an experts team by contributing to the work of the Beznau nuclear power plant.

Your profile:

• Initial experience with FE-Modeling or willing to learn about with the ANSYS tool

• Mechanical engineering background is advantageous

• Good technical writing skills; Fluent in English; German would be a plus

Working conditions:

• Location: Axpo HQs in Baden

• Duration and time constraints: 3-month project

• Extent: Limited to an internship

In the frame of this summer internship project, the student will work in the fuel back-end team of Axpo at the headquarters in Baden. A newly introduced project aims to build internal competencies in technical analyses in the area of storage and transportation casks for spent nuclear fuel. The intern will set up the knowledge management for the newly developed in house-project of setting up technical analysis competencies. This will include involvement in initialization of a software platform for the fuel element casks, initiating project management and establishment of the necessary processes for long-term knowledge retention.

Your profile:

• Familiarity with project management or willingness to learn

• Technical background

• Interest in people and processes

• Good technical writing skills; Fluent in English; German would be a plus

Working conditions:

• Location: Axpo HQs in Baden

• Duration and time constraints: 3-month project

• Extent: Limited to an internship

In the frame of this summer internship project, the student will work in the nuclear fuel fabrication team of Axpo at the headquarters in Baden. The summer student will become familiar with the nuclear fuel fabrication process and the required handling of data related to it. Using the Databricks platform, the intern will have the opportunity to improve the methodology for handling the fuel fabrication data and will learn about the challenges in the area of the structural and mechanical design of modern nuclear fuel.

Your profile:

• nuclear engineering or mechanical engineering, knowledge of computer modelling

• independent, systematic worker, curious, proactive

• communication skills; expertise in English; German is a plus

Working conditions:

• Location: Axpo HQs in Baden

• Duration and time constraints: 3-month project

• Extent: According to the project's performance, the internship could be extended to total of 6 months.

Join Axpo’s nuclear division to help craft a pioneering patent strategy that will recognize, protect, and drive in-house innovation. As part of a dynamic team, you will collaborate with industry experts, visit cutting-edge nuclear sites, and work alongside a patent attorney to identify and secure breakthrough technologies. This project offers a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in intellectual property, contribute to the commercialization of nuclear innovations, and help shape the future of sustainable energy. Your work will directly impact how Axpo transforms its technical expertise into lasting value. For this project, two summer interns will be recruited.

Your profile:

• Interest in intellectual property, patents, and innovation

• Curiosity and eagerness to learn about the nuclear industry

• Strong initiative, resilience and ability to work independently despite disappointments

• Patience and organizational skills for planning meetings and site visits

• At least one team member with German language proficiency (B1 or higher)

• Valid Swiss car driver’s license for at least one team member

Working conditions:

• Location: Axpo HQs in Baden and at KKB

• Duration and time constraints: 3-month project

•  Extent: Limited to an internship

The Safety department at KKL has established a robust nuclear-safety LLM pipeline using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to query more than 2000 safety-relevant reports. Because a significant portion of nuclear power plant data is stored in structured databases rather than plain text, we have integrated SQL retrieval (SQLAlchemy) to ensure access these critical records. We utilize a benchmarking program based on RAGAS to maintain performance and accuracy standards. This internship advances this work by moving into deep model training where you will fine-tune model weights directly using our specialized nuclear corpus. You will collaborate with two staff engineers and external consultants to apply QLoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation) systems, ensuring optimal training without over-fitting. This project is vital for nuclear safety as it allows us to rigorously evaluate the security, risks and advantages of embedding domain-specific knowledge into AI models. As this is a pioneering effort in the nuclear industry, your contributions will help define new safety paradigms and may result in a scientific publication.

Your profile:

• Foundational understanding on nuclear safety principles,

• Strong interest in innovative technologies

• proficiency in Python programming

Working conditions:

• Location: Leibstadt nuclear power plant

• Duration and time constraints: 3-month project

• Extent: According to the project's performance, the internship could be extended to 6 months and to a master thesis project.

In the frame of this summer internship project, the student will work in the nuclear reactor physics team of Axpo at the headquarters in Baden. The project focuses on the simulation of slow transients, which are a key part of the annual safety analysis for new Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) core designs. Students will work with advanced core physics tools such as SIMULATE5 and PRESTO-2, gaining hands-on experience in steady-state BWR reactor physics and automation using Python and Bash scripting. The project aims at establishing an internal analysis capability from the ground up and to automate important procedures. Expected outcomes include establishing an automated workflow for slow transient simulations and verifying its functionality against reference results.

Your profile:

• Familiarity with BWR technology

• Knowledge in reactor physics

• Interest in reactor core simulation codes

• Proficiency in Python; Bash and LaTeX coding languages are a plus

• Structured and independent way of working

• Fluency in written and spoken English

Working conditions:

• Location: Axpo HQs in Baden

• Duration and time constraints: 3-month project

• Extent: According to the project's performance, the internship could be extended to 6 months

In the frame of this summer internship project, the student will work in the nuclear reactor physics team of Axpo at the headquarters in Baden. The project aims to improve the coupling interface between core simulation software and external modules used to calculate dryout safety limits in the reactor core of the Leibstadt power plant. The project is interesting because it involves both understanding and modernizing existing critical software that impacts reactor safety assessments. Students will conduct a gap analysis to identify deficiencies, clean up and optimize the code using best practices, and verify functionalities through benchmarking. Expected results include a more robust, efficient, and documented interface for dryout calculations.

Your profile:

• Familiarity with BWR technology and with reactor physics codes

• Coding skills: Python and Fortran or C++, Bash would be a plus

• Experience with code development

• Structured and independent way of working

• Fluency in written and spoken English.

Working conditions:

• Location: Axpo HQs in Baden

• Duration and time constraints: 3-month project

• Extent: According to the project's performance, the internship could be extended to 6 months

In this project, the student will explore BWR stability analysis and gain experience in modeling and simulating such transients using the best-estimate coupled neutronic/thermal-hydraulics code SIMULATE-3K. Although SIMULATE-3K has been validated against KKL stability tests involving only in-phase oscillations, it has not yet been assessed for the more challenging out-of-phase modes. The exclusion region in the power–flow map is typically defined conservatively and only sparsely investigated. A systematic, fine-mesh exploration of this region will improve understanding of how core stability evolves and whether the decay ratio varies linearly or nonlinearly with changing power–flow conditions. The project will also assess the influence of inlet sub-cooling on stability parameters, and extend the analysis across multiple operating cycles to evaluate potential changes in the stability topology of the exclusion region. The project has three primary objectives: 1. Familiarization with the modeling of BWR transients, with a special focus on stability analysis. 2. Performing of a systematic screening of the exclusion region with respect to the stability characteristics of the KKL core, across various parameters of interest and operating cycles. 3. Modeling and simulation of the out-of-phase oscillations observed during stability tests of the KKL core in Cycle 07.

Your profile:

• Familiarity with BWR technology

• Coding skills: Python or Matlab; bash would be a plus

• Proficiency in working autonomously and demonstrating critical thinking skills

• Good technical writing skills & fluency in written and spoken English

Working conditions:

• Location: Axpo HQs in Baden

• Duration and time constraints: 3-month project

• Extent: According to the project's performance, the internship could be extended to 6 months and to a master thesis project.

This internship project aims to support a major strategic decision in the decommissioning of the KKB nuclear power plant by analyzing and comparing two fundamental material‑handling concepts: processing materials directly within the plant or constructing a dedicated Material Treatment Center (Materialbearbeitungszentrum). The intern will gain deep insight into the complex logistics, operational workflows, and strategic implications associated with radioactive and non‑radioactive material streams during decommissioning. The project involves a comprehensive technical and financial feasibility assessment of both options, including process mapping, capacity estimation, and evaluation of required infrastructure and resources. A key element is a risk and uncertainty analysis, where the intern will develop a Monte Carlo simulation model to quantify financial variability, identify cost drivers, and assess robustness of each strategy under different scenarios. The final output will be a well‑structured recommendation report and presentation to the Divisionsleitung, enabling an informed strategic decision by June of this year. The project offers a unique opportunity to combine engineering analysis, economic evaluation, and real‑world nuclear‑decommissioning strategy..

Your profile:

• Coding skills

• Proficiency in statistical Analysis

• Fluency in German is highly recommended

• Openness to work in Baden and Beznau

Working conditions:

• Location: Axpo HQs in Baden

• Duration and time constraints: 3-month project

• Extent: According to the project's performance, the internship could be extended to 6 months and to a master thesis project.

“Fatigue usage” refers to the cumulative stress experienced by mechanical components that are subjected to varying pressure and temperature conditions over time. The Leibstadt nuclear power plant (KKL), closely monitors the fatigue usage of all components forming the primary reactor boundary to ensure ongoing plant safety and compliance with regulatory requirements. To prepare for long-term operation, KKL requires a more detailed and accurate analysis of fatigue to reliably assess component lifetime and integrity. During this internship, you will gain insight into mechanical analysis in the field of nuclear safety, including the transients that can cause life-limiting stress on critical plant components, and contribute to the development of more precise fatigue usage assessments using actual operation data of Switzerland’s largest nuclear power plant

Your profile:

• Familiarity with mechanical engineering, materials science, or related disciplines

• Experience with Python and Excel (prior knowledge of fatigue analysis software is a plus, but not expected)

• Basic knowledge of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics

• Fluency in written and spoken English (German is also appreciated)

• Willingness to learn and engage with new, complex topics

• Independent and structured working style.

Working conditions:

• Location: Leibstadt nuclear power plant

• Duration and time constraints: 3-month project

• Extent: According to the project's performance, the internship could be extended to 6 months and to a master thesis project.