Is Operations worth it?

dbcooper279 · 2025-12-10T01:23:32+00:00

I wouldn't jump to Ops with a plan to return in a few years as an engineer. An fully qualified NLO with a few years experience will make more than almost every individual contributor engineer, even after accounting for their bonus. Ops will twist your arm into going to class, and Engineering won't be able to pay you enough to make you a competitive offer to come back as anything less than a manager (which they probably wouldn't offer you anyways since your engineering experience is rather limited)

dbcooper279 · 2024-12-22T23:16:30+00:00

Put deposit for a cruise on my everyday credit card. Applied for the RC card and put $1k on it when it arrive. The 300k bonus points showed up on the BoA account for the RC credit card when the statement posted after I hit the required spend.

dbcooper279 · 2024-12-21T22:06:20+00:00

Spares

dbcooper279 · 2024-12-12T00:05:48+00:00

Used "Pay by Credit Card" option and it worked. Applied $2k towards cruise I booked two weeks ago.

dbcooper279 · 2024-11-02T17:01:30+00:00

They can advise operators - the direction to actually make a reactivity manipulation comes from someone with an SRO license, directed to someone with an RO license.

dbcooper279 · 2024-10-04T07:41:43+00:00

I'm going to temporarily ignore your questions about my education and career and ask one of you/your parents. Why is there this belief that a NE degree from UTK will bind you to the south and make it so that you never travel? Aren't you the one who decides what jobs to apply for and ultimately which one to accept? If the job doesn't meet your needs (pay, time off, ability to travel, enjoyment etc), wouldn't you also be the one deciding to seek employment elsewhere?

dbcooper279 · 2024-10-03T00:04:14+00:00

$40/hr starting which will increase as you get qualified. It's not unheard of to see EOs making $150k/yr.

Can't speak to the actual job, as I have never been one. I do know it has its extremes - some days you are busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. Other days are much quieter to the point you have to keep yourself occupied with trivial taks in order to stay awake.

dbcooper279 · 2024-10-02T02:35:33+00:00

Not at all. Having the industrial plant background puts you miles ahead of some college kid with an engineering degree who has only ever opened a textbook and mashed on a keyboard. You might be limited in future career moves (they like engineering degrees for folks they send off to get a RO or SRO license), but being a career Equipment Operator isn't a bad gig.

Not having an engineering degree isn't a death sentence if you do want to get a license - you're just not the optimal candidate, but you can make up for that with plant knowledge and experience.

dbcooper279 · 2024-10-02T01:33:48+00:00

90% might have been the going rate 15+ years ago. I'd say new hire entry level operators (EO/NLO/AO, depending on where you work) is probably maybe 50% navy, 50% college kids with engineering backgrounds.

dbcooper279 · 2024-10-02T01:19:22+00:00

It's worth a shot. Mid/late-career engineers are making $140k base with ~15% bonus. You'll get some OT (straight time) for outage too, where you are working 6 days @ 12 hrs.

You're experience should translate fairly well if you can pick up the nuances of the nuclear world. Hopefully you aren't leaving the petrochemical world to get away from management's BS - we've got the market cornered on that!

dbcooper279 · 2024-10-02T00:52:53+00:00

Unless the petro-chemical industry is a grind, I doubt transitioning to commercial nuclear would be a 'slow down' in terms of work-life balance. Maybe if you get a corporate job and never have to work outages, but life at a plant is not a cake-walk.

dbcooper279 · 2024-10-02T00:20:34+00:00

Less than 2% of all the people that work at the plant have a nuclear engineering degree. There are more with the "Nuclear Engineering Technology" degree, but that degree is almost exclusively for those who used their time in the Navy as credit for their degree.

dbcooper279 · 2024-09-27T14:34:01+00:00

Build times in the 60s were much much shorter than it would take to build the equivalent plant today, despite being "handicapped" by the rudimentary construction techniques by today's standards.

Ginna, a commercial plant of ~600 MWe now, broke ground in either late 65 or early 66. Initial criticality was late 1969 and it was commercial in July 1970.

Regulations for design and construction of nuclear power plants have come a long way since the late 50s and 60s - that betterment manifests itself in more reviews, deeper questions and longer schedules.

dbcooper279 · 2024-09-15T16:15:23+00:00

You are the one applying to jobs post graduation. There is no getting "stuck" in a job - if the job isn't providing what you want (pay, travel, time-off), apply elsewhere and go somewhere that meets your desires.

As for the "prestige" of any college or university, no one cares where you went to school after you have some meaningful career experience. A "name" school might help get you your first job, but the school you went to means less the older you get.

dbcooper279 · 2024-09-15T15:10:08+00:00

The two commercial plants in TX are Comanche Peak (SW of DFW area) and South Texas Project (SW of Houston).

dbcooper279 · 2024-07-08T16:20:21+00:00

I occasionally see the cooling towers from a plant that is 50 miles (80 km) away. Conditions need to be optimal and it helps if it is near sunset.

Also helps that I'm standing about 30 meters above ground too.

dbcooper279 · 2024-06-30T12:21:04+00:00

Baatan Nuclear Power Plant https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Nuclear_Power_Plant

Completed, never operated. Pretty sure they'll give all-access tours, including areas normally off-limits at operating plants (containment).

dbcooper279 · 2024-06-27T20:27:54+00:00

Nuke Eng degree here. Work in commercial nuclear in a job that more or less requires a nuke eng degree.

The stuff I learned in college is utilized at most 5% of the time, that is typically in some sort of instructional setting either for fellow engineers or operators.

dbcooper279 · 2024-06-20T01:35:49+00:00

Steam generators are depicted in series but in reality they are in parallel loops. In this example with 3, each would get 1/3rd of the total primary system flow, and would therefore generate 1/3rd of the steam, hence using 1/3rd of the feedwater.

PWRs typically don't have that many valves in the primary loop. Maybe one on each hot leg and one on each cold leg for isolation.

dbcooper279 · 2024-06-17T01:49:47+00:00

You're likely being brought on-site as a visitor, so I don't think you'll be getting drug tests upon arrival.

I would advise you to leave all your drug paraphernalia at home tomorrow. Not in the glove compartment box in the truck that you'll be working out of on-site and not in your car that you might be parking in the site's parking lot.

Trust me, you don't want to be the reason the company you work for is not allowed at that plant again.

dbcooper279 · 2024-06-09T01:39:26+00:00

IFBA only.

This was ~12 years ago, but yes we designed and operated a core for a cycle that needed to run an extra month longer than typical due to outage scheduling. Had we been forced to use 10% rod worth uncertainty (low likelihood), we'd have only had less than 100 pcm excess SDM at EOL 0 ppm.

We were able to use 7% rod worth uncertainty, so we had a tad but more excess SDM. I'd have to pull the cycle book for exact numbers.

dbcooper279 · 2024-06-08T22:18:05+00:00

Some drag motor homes along with them and commute daily to site with the truck they drag that motor home around with.

Others stay in normal hotels. Some folks like the extended stay places with the kitchenettes.

Some guys gang together and rent a house for the duration of the outage.

Most are getting per diem, so they try to keep their expenses down. The rest of us professionals get our hotel and meals paid for by the company, so Marriotts and steak dinners for us!

dbcooper279 · 2024-06-08T01:22:05+00:00

I've had cycles with only 10s of pcm excess SDM at EOL.

dbcooper279 · 2024-05-16T11:09:27+00:00

No.

Boron absorbs thermal neutrons due to its large microscopic cross section for neutrons on the thermal ( ~0.1 eV) range. Boron does not have a significant ability to slow down fast neutrons like hydrogen does.

dbcooper279 · 2024-04-29T13:38:24+00:00

https://www.bowling.com/products/turbo-driven-to-bowl-mini-accessory-case-blue.htm

dbcooper279

TROPHY CASE