NLO Pay question

[Chrisv006]

I just herd I am getting an offer for an NLO position in the SE..

I am a freshly graduated ME - anyone else been in this position?  What should I expect?

Thanks

[mlslstephens]

I just herd I am getting an offer for an NLO position in the SE..

I am a freshly graduated ME - anyone else been in this position?  What should I expect?

Thanks

Great question.  I asked Broadzilla and he said there were about 123456789 answers to your question if you used the search feature of the website...but I think he is exaggerating just abit.  I used the search engine for "NLO" and I only found 1560 topics. 

[Chrisv006]

I find like 6 topics .

[MLew44]

I just herd I am getting an offer for an NLO position in the SE..

I am a freshly graduated ME - anyone else been in this position?  What should I expect?

Thanks

You are asking about pay. You can expect from about 60K to about 130K yearly gross. How's that for a range? A lot of factors go into it: location of plant, the utility, your seniority, qual status, union vs. non-union plant, whether or not you're on shift (which you will be eventually), and amount of overtime especially. All utilities pay their operators some variation of shift differential. You said "...in the SE," which I assume means in the southeast. I have no idea what plant you're talking about, but here's a rough guess... In two or three years, once you've qualified all watchstations and achieved some seniority, assuming a moderate amount of overtime (let's say around 300 or 400 hours a year), you can probably expect 80K to 100K yearly gross. That's a guess on my part. But nevertheless, it is in fact a very well-paid job. At almost all sites, NLO is an apprentice position that eventually leads to a license. Once a license is achieved, the pay is outstanding as either an RO or SRO. If that's where you want to be heading in 5, 10 years, you've chosen well. If you want to avoid the demands of getting and maintaining a license, and you prefer to end up as an engineer or virtually any other position in the power station, you've still chosen well. Given the constraint of the info you've given, does that answer your question?

[Chrisv006]

Yes - Perfect Answer!

I am very excited about the kind of work (hands on vs. a cube)...I just wanted
to make sure I'll be around the averages for my degree!

Thanks all.

-Chris

[Len61]

Yes - Perfect Answer!

I am very excited about the kind of work (hands on vs. a cube)...I just wanted
to make sure I'll be around the averages for my degree!

Thanks all.

-Chris

I work for a large Governement owned utility in the SE. As far as pay goes MLew44 is correct.
As far as the degree goes there is no difference in pay for a degreed NLO or non degreed NLO.
That being said most NLO's make more than the average engineer at our plant, due mostly to the amount of overtime available.
Good luck

[thenuttyneutron]

I earned a degree in Nuclear Engineering back in 2004.  I am now a fully qualified operator (NLO) at a nuke plant and have no regrets.  The pay is good, but the hours can stink.  I work a rotating 12 hour schedule.  The contant rolling of the schedule can get very stressful. 

During an outage, you will make lots of money.  The holiday weeks are especially good.  The week of Christmans was awsome.  I know people who made $4,500 gross for 1 week of work by working both of the holidays and 72 hours a week.

[Chrisv006]

Got my offer today!

Its almost $30/hr....I think Im going to take it!  Not bad for fresh out of school....

Now I just need to make sure I can get enough hours!

[Nuclear NASCAR]

Got my offer today!

Its almost $30/hr....I think Im going to take it!  Not bad for fresh out of school....

Now I just need to make sure I can get enough hours!

Is that starting or topping out pay?  I ask because there is usually a starting pay and then it goes up as you qualify more watch stations.  As far as hours, I'll bet that you'll get all you want, most likely more than you want.

Best of luck on the new job and welcome to the industry!

[BuckyNuke]

at our plant, base hourly wage is like $24/hr, but you get that increased to about $29/hr when you fully qualify. once you "top out" as an NLO, it's around $33-34/hr.

[B.PRESGROVE]

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I cant take this anymore!!!!! I have put in for so many plants its making me sick just to read about this!!!     I an ex hp and have been trying to get into ops for almost 7 months now, I passed the POSS test for one utility and was on the short list for interview now they froze that till this summer and havent heard anything from the other uts.  (im just crying out loud I guess about how long it takes to get on with a utility)

[B.PRESGROVE]

Sorry about the previous post, I was just venting and should have done that to my wife and not yall.  I truly am happy for anyone who gets that kinda money and wish them only the best.