Process Engineering Summer Intern

Employer description

About Helion

We are a fusion power company based in Everett, WA, with the mission to build the world’s first fusion power plant, enabling a future with unlimited clean electricity. Our vision is a world with clean, reliable, and affordable energy for everyone.

Since Helion’s founding in 2013, we have raised $1.5 billion from long-time investors such as Sam Altman, Mithril, and Capricorn Investment Group as well as new investors including Thrive Capital, LightSpeed Venture Capital, SoftBank, and others to propel us forward. Our current prototype, Polaris, has reached record-breaking plasma temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius (13 keV). Helion is continuing to iterate and on the path to the world’s first fusion power plant, Orion.

This is a pivotal time to join Helion. You will tackle real-world challenges with a team that prizes urgency, rigor, ownership, and a commitment to delivering hard truths – values essential to achieving what no one has before. Together, we will change the future of energy, because the world can’t wait.

What You Will Be Doing:

Helion’s Fuel Cycle Team is focused on recycling gas from the machine’s vacuum system, separating unspent fuel from fusion byproducts. As an intern, you will work on these separation systems, learning the technology and related systems (vacuum, cryogenics, etc.). Your tasks will include optimizing system parameters, designing experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and modifying the test setup. At the end of the internship, you will present your findings and recommendations. This is a 12-week onsite internship at our Everett, WA office.

You Will:

Learn and operate a separation technology used in Helion’s fuel cycle, while understanding the system on a conceptual level

Adhere to safety protocols and gain hands-on experience with the system operation

Optimize specific system parameters and present a report detailing your process and results at the end of the internship

Explore and/or implement system improvements and conduct independent experiments to further enhance the technology

Required Skills:

Ability to work full time, onsite in Everett, WA for a minimum of 12 consecutive weeks during summer 2027

Currently enrolled in a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Nuclear Engineering

GPA of 3.0 or above

Strong understanding of engineering principles like thermodynamics, fluids, mass transfer, heat transfer, and mechanics

Proficiency in data analysis and familiarity with software tools (MATLAB, Python, Excel)

Ability to learn how a system operates and run it independently

Basic understanding of chemistry and steady-state systems (undergraduate level)

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