Analyze samples, such as air or water samples, for contaminants or other elements.

“Analyze samples, such as air or water samples, for contaminants or other elements.” is a core task performed by Nuclear Monitoring Technicians. Among the occupation's 19 rated tasks, workers place it 11th by importance (#9 most important). About 96% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Analyze environmental or geospatial data. in Analyzing Data or Information

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T1.

How AI is actually used on this kind of task

The Anthropic Economic Index observes how people actually use AI on tasks like this one across millions of real conversations.

• 0.002% share of AI-use records mapped to this task

Observed AI use describes people choosing to use AI as a tool on this kind of task today. It is augmentation and assistance, not a measure of jobs replaced.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Brief workers on radiation levels in work areas. · importance 4.6
• Calculate safe radiation exposure times for personnel using plant contamination readings and prescribed safe levels of radiation. · importance 4.5
• Monitor personnel to determine the amounts and intensities of radiation exposure. · importance 4.5
• Provide initial response to abnormal events or to alarms from radiation monitoring equipment. · importance 4.5
• Inform supervisors when individual exposures or area radiation levels approach maximum permissible limits. · importance 4.5
• Determine intensities and types of radiation in work areas, equipment, or materials, using radiation detectors or other instruments. · importance 4.5
• Instruct personnel in radiation safety procedures and demonstrate use of protective clothing and equipment. · importance 4.4
• Collect samples of air, water, gases, or solids to determine radioactivity levels of contamination. · importance 4.4
• Enter data into computers to record characteristics of nuclear events or to locate coordinates of particles. · importance 4.1
• Determine or recommend radioactive decontamination procedures, according to the size and nature of equipment and the degree of contamination. · importance 4.1
• Set up equipment that automatically detects area radiation deviations and test detection equipment to ensure its accuracy. · importance 4.1
• Calibrate and maintain chemical instrumentation sensing elements and sampling system equipment, using calibration instruments and hand tools. · importance 4.0
• Prepare reports describing contamination tests, material or equipment decontaminated, or methods used in decontamination processes. · importance 4.0
• Place radioactive waste, such as sweepings or broken sample bottles, into containers for shipping or disposal. · importance 3.9

See all tasks on the Nuclear Monitoring Technicians page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-20540,
  title  = {Analyze samples, such as air or water samples, for contaminants or other elements.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-20540}
}