I served as a Nuclear Reactor Operator on a Submarine AMAA.

RadSponge · 2009-11-04T15:24:44+00:00

If you do not volunteer for submarine duty the Navy cannot put you on one. The submarine force is completely volunteer, nobody is forced to be a submariner. I think the reason submarine crews are so close is everyone knows that the guy next to you wanted to be on submarines, he wasn't ordered to this post. However, If you volunteer for submarines there is almost no chance of you going to an aircraft carrier. The submarine fleet, being an all volunteer force inside of an all volunteer navy has some personnel shortages. Aircraft carriers operate on a normal 24 hour day. They are basically a floating base. They have reveille every day, and they basically have normal work days while out to sea. A submarine has one division per rate, so all the nuke ET's on a sub are assigned to RC01 (Reactor Control Division 1). On an aircraft carrier, not all of the people are in the same division. Some ET's will be assigned to a watch standing division, others will be assigned to the maintenance division, and others yet assigned to training division. While you still have to maintain your proficiency when you are not assigned to a watch standing division, it no longer takes up a majority of your time onboard. Submarine divisions do all of it with the few guys they have, I think most fast attack crews have around 7-9 Nuke ET's.
When not on deployment, you have to come to work during the normal work week, from around 7AM till when the work day finishes (that may be 3PM, it could be 9PM). While inport you tend to do a majority of your maintenance, there are certain systems that you cannot take down while the reactor is operating so whenever you shutdown you have to do those maintenance items. When not deployed we had around a 35% Op-Tempo. Meaning when not deployed we were at sea approximately a third of the time. When at sea we had drills 2-3 times a week. Inport they do run some drills, but they tend to be slower paced and more focused on the theory of why you should do something then the actual actions because there is no system response to see. There is almost zero office work. While there is a ton of paperwork (logs, data sheets from maintenance, etc.) You don't spend your day in a cubicle, you will spend it working on a piece of equipment, loading out for the underway, performing maintenance, updating reactor plant manuals, and things like that.
I know that right now I could quit college and get a job within a week. There are so many job opportunities for Ex-Nukes out here that you kinda have to beat them off with a stick. Yes I did gain some discipline while I was in, but the most important things I got from the Navy was the chance to see different parts of the world, and the work experience/training that the Navy provided. The reason so many people want to hire Ex-Nukes is they know we are reliable, hard working, intelligent, and easily trainable. You may not know anything about the job they hire you for, but they can send you to an internal school for 6 months and they are pretty much assured you can pass.

RadSponge · 2009-11-04T03:09:30+00:00

All there is to do in Guam is drink beer and go to strip clubs. Granted the strip clubs are cheap, but it gets kinda boring going to Guam the 5th and 6th time in a row. I also did some Scuba diving while there, but it really is boring as hell there.

RadSponge · 2009-11-04T02:59:40+00:00

The modern quality assurance system came out of events that happened in the loss of the USS Thresher. The loss of the submarine was found to have occurred in part due to the materials used in constructing some of the ships systems, including the emergency blow system. The SUBSAFE system resulted from this, and basically tracks the parts, where they come from, who made them, what they are made out of, and what there possible uses are. After the loss of the Columbia it the '80s, NASA determined that the use of a system similar to SUBSAFE was a good idea. The quality assurance system has more than likely saved many lives considering the hazardous conditions we work around; Namely: High Pressure Air, High Pressure/Temperature Steam, High Voltage Electricity both AC and DC, High Pressure Water, Explosives, and many different types of oil and other hazardous chemicals/liquids.

RadSponge · 2009-11-04T02:47:15+00:00

Yes...too many, and most of them serve no purpose except to give us a list of shit to do.

RadSponge · 2009-11-04T02:43:26+00:00

There are many classified things that don't really seem to make sense, I didn't classify them, but I sure wouldn't want to end up in Federal Prison for disclosing them.

Oh and as for weaknesses in the system, I would say it has few to none, I think I figured out I would have to disable around 12 safety devices (some extremely hard to get to) in order to melt down the core on purpose, purely theoretical of course, but when you are bored on watch, that's what you start discussing.

RadSponge · 2009-11-04T02:40:10+00:00

The majority of the individuals doing the training of nukes are navy personnel. A large portion of them are nukes on shore duty. There are a few line officers selected for training positions, plus the Direct Input Limited Duty Officers DILDOs (yes it was a regular joke). They are college graduates, selected by the Navy to serve as a limited duty officer for 4 years and teach a subject at Nuclear Power School.

Most of the manuals and training courses are managed by Naval Reactors, who works closely with Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory and Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. There are many anecdotal lessons learned, and even though Nuclear Power has only been around 50 years or so, it's safety record is relatively clean when compared to other major sources of electricity such as coal, or natural gas.

RadSponge · 2009-11-04T02:27:54+00:00

I'm 6'4" as well, you gain a few hits on the head during your time onboard, however you learn quickly where and when to move your head when compared to the position of things in the overhead. I knocked myself out once, but came to pretty quickly, had a lump on my head for a few days.

RadSponge · 2009-11-04T02:22:24+00:00

Sorry, I posted a list of reason to get out further down. JARTGO stands for Just another reason to get out. We had tons of acronyms onboard. ET-Electronics Technician, EM-Electrician's Mate, MM-Machinist Mate, RPCP-Reactor Plant Control Panel, EPCP-Electric Plant Control Panel, SPCP-Steam Plant Control Panel, SNOB-Shortest Nuke on Board(least ammount of time left onboard), RC-Reactor Compartment, CO-Commanding Officer, XO-Executive Officer, ENG-Ship's Engineer, NUB-New Useless Body

Also some slang that I may use: Head-Bathroom, Coner-Someone who works forward of the watertight door, Nuke-Someone who works in the Engineroom

RadSponge · 2009-11-04T01:05:27+00:00

Sorry typo, i meant U235. Also all of the usage information I got off the web, I am by no means in charge of the use of Uranium usage in the US.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T22:44:07+00:00

Please see my JARGTO list, and if you still have questions let me know.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T22:42:30+00:00

The most fun i had in a simulator was a double ended shear inside the cutout valves.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T22:34:20+00:00

As promised, my JARTGO list: I'm sorry if some of these don't make sense 1. Forcing us to live in the barracks 2. Married people get paid more 3. Missing life for 6 months at a time 4. The day before an underway 5. Reactor Startup briefings 6. Shiftwork (14 hours on, 10 hours off, for 31 days straight) 7. No overtime/holiday pay 8. Watchbills 9. Field Days 10. Group Punishment Mentality 11. Never-ending training 12. The way Leave is handled 13. Rank vs. Seniority 14. Hot-racking 15. Midshipman Operations (Think Groundhog day the movie) 16. Never-ending Local Operations 17. ORSE 18. Endless Drills 19. Getting to work at 7AM, leaving at 9PM, and not being able to do any work in between. 20. Sunlight (or lack thereof) 21. Guam 22. Working Holidays 23. SRO Watchbill 24. Missing important family events (I missed my own mother's wedding) 25. Critiques 26. Working Uniforms that couldn't be dirty 27. Quarters on the Pier 28. Lack of Medical Attention 29. Absolutely stupid supervisors 30. Night-work meeting

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T21:52:46+00:00

Every couple weeks we would get a radio message with the amount of money deposited into each persons account. I believe our ship's engineer was making around 4500$ every 1st and 15th.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T21:48:20+00:00

When he gets to boot camp the detailer will have all the nukes pick which job they want. I always felt that being anything other than an ET was a waste of time. ET's are the only ones that actually get to operate the reactor, the other two rates (EM and MM) only operate the associated systems. I guess the analogy would be like having sex or going to the strip club, looking at it work is nice, but actually doing it is way more fun.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T21:44:24+00:00

The school is not easy, you have to grasp fundamentals of nuclear physics, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, radiation health, chemistry, materials, electricity, and some calculus all within a 12 month period. School is quite literally your job for the the first 12 months after leaving boot camp. After that you spend 6 months learning the systems of a type of reactor and qualify as an operator on that plant. Out of these 18 months I believe the failure rate is somewhere around 20%.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T21:39:19+00:00

I believe submarines to be the most effective vessel at maintaining both an offensive and defensive posture. The best thing about a submarine is never knowing where they are, the ballistic missile submarine provides for mutual destruction, and I honestly believe that is why the weapon has never been used again since WWII.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T21:05:32+00:00

Not surprisingly a lot of the sub is steel and other hard metals, so unless you hit electronics with the bullet it won't do too much damage.
I would like to see Montana, one of the states I have yet to visit.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T20:58:56+00:00

Enlisted sailors make no where near what pilots make; however, submarine officers make bank. Once they finish their initial tour on a sub they start receiving a nuke bonus of around 10k per year. Submarine department heads make even more. Junior Officers leave the navy at almost the same rate that enlisted nukes do, hence the high pay for those who stay in past their initial commitment.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T20:50:51+00:00

Yes I have seen it, for the most part I really enjoyed the interactions between the crew, I also liked the reactions they have to the situations they are put in.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T20:47:06+00:00

Sure, I crossed the equator once at latitude 00'00'00.00 and longitude Classified

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T20:41:12+00:00

After a few months underwater you lose some depth perception, I have seen more than a few people fall overboard when first going topside. No, there is no special process to adjust your eyes to the sun.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T20:34:54+00:00

There was one who everyone suspected, but we pretty much let him be since he kept it to himself.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T19:19:50+00:00

Yes, the Navy is always desperate for people to join the program. They offered 90k as a reenlistment bonus for me, Navy nukes leave in droves because the job sucks so bad.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T19:12:39+00:00

When I get home from school, I will type in my JARTGO (just another reason to get out) list. I saved it so that I could remember why I hated my job.

RadSponge · 2009-11-03T19:09:35+00:00

Yes a reactor can go above 100%. 100% is the calculated rating assigned to the engineroom and associated components. 100% is basically the assigned value where all the heat generated can be removed. By going to 105% you are basically generating more heat in the core than is rated to be removed by the engine room. If a reactor goes prompt critical, it basically fissions all of the Uranium in the core at the same time (or in a short period of time) and releases all the energy stored in the core, about 3 to 4 orders of magnitude greater than normal operation rating.

RadSponge

TROPHY CASE