My site (one you may be familiar with, McLovin), follows the ACAD guidelines for who they tap as STAs:
“Candidates should have bachelor's degrees in engineering or physical science or sufficient courses to provide a background for understanding the design and operation of nuclear power plants. These courses should include mathematics (calculus through ordinary differential equations), chemistry, physics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, electrical theory, basic electronics, and strength of materials.”
Sometimes it’s the ODE coursework that holds people up.
To answer some of your other posts, the site requirement for the ABET comes into play when an SRO candidate doesn’t quite meet other Direct-SRO ACAD requirements (which we also follow), such as being just short of 2 years as an EOOW or EWS – it allows them to go the ops engineer route with a year less required experience.
Our STA-qualified SROs do get paid straight time OT starting at 45 hrs, capped at 60 per pay period, versus 1.5x OT for SRO-only guys starting at 40 hrs with no cap. Even though the SRO-only make about $15k less in base salary, the required coverage OT takes them fairly well ahead in yearly earnings. That gap is closing as the plant staffs up Ops, especially with the awesome talent in the present license class.
Good for you that you are thinking about other things outside of your department. I – and I believe most of my site’s management team – welcome cross-discipline collaboration and suggestion, especially fresh insight. Even if a person’s idea ultimately bears no fruit (or even if it’s downright stupid) it’s good to know they have the right direction for the site in mind.
