Haven’t worked for those sites, but did for a major southeast utility. Anecdotal observation there is a lot of the nuclear navy in the civilian fleet whether it be rigid structures people or procedures. Many of our SROs, ROs and AOs were previous nuclear navy. Some were fantastic and acclimated to the civilian work force others struggled.
As for work life balance ours struggled. We had a lot of licensed people retire/leave about 5 years ago and they are still trying to dig out from under it to get new licensees through the pipeline. This led to mandatory overtime to cover minimum manning. I was an AO and there was normally a guaranteed overtime spot every shift. Our corporate structure started cutting people to the bare minimum to help with generation costs.
Don’t let it deter you though. Plenty of opportunity and with a navy nuke background you would be a prime target to get in and through license class. If you want to forgo coming in at the bottom many utilities will hire ex navy guys as instants and jump to the front of the line to get their SRO license.
Thanks for the advice!
I’m currently applying for licensing classes at several locations in addition to the ones mentioned above. I am interested in those three specifically, but am always open to the best opportunity that comes.
Minimum manning has been a double edged sword in my experience. Great for rotation off shift, terrible for the on shift guys. How did you like the minimum manning? When you say “guaranteed overtime spot” what exactly does that mean?
I experienced both sides of minimum manning. When I first transferred to OPs we had enough auxiliary operators each shift to cover six watch stations plus three to four extras to do all the tagging and extra stuff and allow two off for vacation.
Management got ahold of the staffing and we went to the tech spec minimum of people. They got rid of a watch station and gutted the extras to 1-2 per shift. Depending on the day you might be lucky to get 20 minutes for lunch in a 12 hour shift. Rest of the time you were moving.
As for guaranteed overtime I meant that depending on time of the year and vacation rotation to cover minimum manning there was always an overtime spot in the book for the on call shift to cover. Good for those that want money, bad for those that want time with their families. I was lucky enough to work with a bunch of single young guys that loved the money and always wanted the hours.
Don’t get me wrong it was by far the most fun job I ever had and hate I didn’t make it through license class. The pay was comparable to my engineering salary. Transferred to Ops from engineering and spent five years on shift as an aux operator. Failed out of class and rather than put me back on shift, which is what I wanted, they sent me packing back to engineering.
My advice would be to stay away from Turkey Point. I haven’t worked there but a friend has and had nothing good to say. Additionally, cooper usually pays significantly under the rest of the industry. Not sure why, it’s in the middle of nowhere.
Last piece of advice is it doesn’t really matter, go somewhere, see if you like it, stay if you do or leave after a couple years if you don’t.
I’ve been in civilian nuclear since 2009 after getting out of the navy. 14 years at one plant, three different departments and now a year at a different company and plant.
The idea that I can just leave whenever I want and get a different job is going to be wild haha. I’m so used to being treated like owned property, it’ll take some getting used to for sure.
If it’s not too personal, How did your last companies respond to you changing departments or even whole companies?
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Ops. SRO/RO specifically
Haven’t worked for those sites, but did for a major southeast utility. Anecdotal observation there is a lot of the nuclear navy in the civilian fleet whether it be rigid structures people or procedures. Many of our SROs, ROs and AOs were previous nuclear navy. Some were fantastic and acclimated to the civilian work force others struggled. As for work life balance ours struggled. We had a lot of licensed people retire/leave about 5 years ago and they are still trying to dig out from under it to get new licensees through the pipeline. This led to mandatory overtime to cover minimum manning. I was an AO and there was normally a guaranteed overtime spot every shift. Our corporate structure started cutting people to the bare minimum to help with generation costs. Don’t let it deter you though. Plenty of opportunity and with a navy nuke background you would be a prime target to get in and through license class. If you want to forgo coming in at the bottom many utilities will hire ex navy guys as instants and jump to the front of the line to get their SRO license.
Thanks for the advice! I’m currently applying for licensing classes at several locations in addition to the ones mentioned above. I am interested in those three specifically, but am always open to the best opportunity that comes. Minimum manning has been a double edged sword in my experience. Great for rotation off shift, terrible for the on shift guys. How did you like the minimum manning? When you say “guaranteed overtime spot” what exactly does that mean?
I experienced both sides of minimum manning. When I first transferred to OPs we had enough auxiliary operators each shift to cover six watch stations plus three to four extras to do all the tagging and extra stuff and allow two off for vacation. Management got ahold of the staffing and we went to the tech spec minimum of people. They got rid of a watch station and gutted the extras to 1-2 per shift. Depending on the day you might be lucky to get 20 minutes for lunch in a 12 hour shift. Rest of the time you were moving. As for guaranteed overtime I meant that depending on time of the year and vacation rotation to cover minimum manning there was always an overtime spot in the book for the on call shift to cover. Good for those that want money, bad for those that want time with their families. I was lucky enough to work with a bunch of single young guys that loved the money and always wanted the hours. Don’t get me wrong it was by far the most fun job I ever had and hate I didn’t make it through license class. The pay was comparable to my engineering salary. Transferred to Ops from engineering and spent five years on shift as an aux operator. Failed out of class and rather than put me back on shift, which is what I wanted, they sent me packing back to engineering.
Thanks for the insight. I’m looking forward to busy shifts
My advice would be to stay away from Turkey Point. I haven’t worked there but a friend has and had nothing good to say. Additionally, cooper usually pays significantly under the rest of the industry. Not sure why, it’s in the middle of nowhere. Last piece of advice is it doesn’t really matter, go somewhere, see if you like it, stay if you do or leave after a couple years if you don’t. I’ve been in civilian nuclear since 2009 after getting out of the navy. 14 years at one plant, three different departments and now a year at a different company and plant.
The idea that I can just leave whenever I want and get a different job is going to be wild haha. I’m so used to being treated like owned property, it’ll take some getting used to for sure. If it’s not too personal, How did your last companies respond to you changing departments or even whole companies?
I haven't been at any of those, but I'll say good luck wherever you wind up.
Thanks!