It isn't even worth comparing the two. They are not the same type of job. In fact, some of the things you cite as examples are things you may or may not ever involve yourself with. If you are an operator, you will not calculate ECP's.
At least, not in any way which resembles what you did in the Navy. A Reactor Engineer will use a special computer hookup to help him collect data during physics testing that he will use to calculate rod placement and Boron concentrations (in a PWR, where you actually dilute the reactor coolant to criticality with the rods in a predetermined position).
You will move fuel bundles once every 12 to 24 months. Sometimes the machine will be computerized and sometimes you will do it manually. Sometimes a vendor will operate it for you.
You will regenerate resin beds (ones that are bigger in volume than your whole engineroom), recycle the liquid that you discharge from the RCS, borate, deborate, discharge waste gas, .......
It is a totally different animal. And that is without considering the Boiling Water Reactors like the ones that BZ operates. (much better from a reactor control standpoint, but a pain in the butt for radiation exposure)
Some of the things will look the same. Every control panel in the world is the same shade of puke gray-blue-green as your RPCP, but that is where the similarity ends. The objective out here is to make the ratio of calendar days to EFPD equal to 1. Yeah, that's EFPD with a D. There is no fast recovery startup, no crashback drills, no 2F/2F, no spill drills, no EAB's, no reverse engine, no throttle wheels, no battleshort. Everybody who works on site is a nuke (to one degree or another). There is no Flank bell, but if there were it would be the only position on the dial other than Stop. Training and eating do not compete for the same space. You don't train on the actual control board - especially never a "casualty". That's right - you NEVER trip a nuclear reactor for practice out here on land. That is what simulators are for.
Actually, a huge portion of your training will be computerized. There are some "magic box" looking instruments in chemistry that do analyses and spit out results. (ion chromatograph, gas chromatograph, atomic absorption spectrophotometer, automatic titrators, gamma spectrometers, liquid scintillation counters, ... etc.) There are even machines that will automatically count a stack of smears (swipes) and print out the results. Radiation surveys are computerized in a lot of plants and handwritten in others - sometimes without even a map. You normally step into a booth to exit an RCA instead of using a frisker. You can survey your own notebook and flashlight out by sticking them in a thing that looks like a small refrigerator.
There are no EO's or MO's. There are non-licensed operators (the ones who work outside the control room), Reactor Operators and Senior Reactor Operators (who work inside the control room). A larger proportion of NLO's, RO's, and SRO's were Machinist Mates in the Navy than the other two rates. I'm not sure why, but I think is is because MM's go to ops, while ET's go to instrumentation or reactor engineering or to something non nuke and EM's tend to stay electricians. Naturally, it isn't right to generalize about these things.
You do not have to learn to do anyone else's job but your own unless you are their supervisor - in which case it is prohibited to know anything at all about their actual job.
Although you will be expected to maintain a professional appearance, and possibly a dress code (as discussed above) there will never be a time when having a serious discussion about work when a senior person will ask you if you shaved that morning just because you were right and he was wrong about which way to do the job.
There has never been a realistic motion picture made about nuclear power. There is a VERY good reason for this. Nuclear power is the most boring thing you can imagine. It is safe, unglamorous, as uneventful as we can make it, reliable, clean, quiet, and duller than your uncle Charlie's stories about his vacation to Mount Rushmore. Real-life nuclear power could not hold the attention of an audience for more than eight minutes. Now, if you wanted to capture the antics of the employees that have nothing to do with the reactor, that might make a good flick. We're talking about the same stuff that probably goes on in thousands of other workplaces though -- sex in elevators, affairs, divorces, financial hijinks, personality conflicts, ... the usual workplace stuff. Come to think of it, that isn't very interesting either.
