abstract:A reactor operator (or nuclear reactor operator) is an individual at a nuclear power plant who is responsible for directly controlling a nuclear reactor from a control panel and is the only individual at a nuclear power plant who can directly alter significant amounts of reactor reactivity. The reactor operator occupies a position of great responsibility that may require him or her to start up a nuclear reactor, shut down a critical nuclear reactor, monitor reactor parameters, or respond to a casualty of the nuclear reactor.
Enter web-comic celebrity Randall Munroe (of xkcd), and his friend Ellen, Senior ReactorOperator at the Reed Research Reactor, who have put together some charts which might help us make sense of all this radiation talk.