Boilermaker needing "red badge info"

[naters]

I am a union boilermaker journeyman trying to figure out how to get a "red badge" to work in a nuke plant during outages. I have seen several jobs listed before on our work site for nuke jobs but they say you need a "red badge". I have asked everyone I know and even called my union hall. No one seems to know how to go about getting this. I always thought that you would get one when you hired in at the plant but these locals will not send you to a plant unless you have one so anyway I am stumped!!! I know that it is basically just a background check and all that stuff but is there a way to get one without actually hiring into the plant first??? Any help, any answers???

[Longtime Nuke]

I know that it is basically just a background check and all that stuff but is there a way to get one without actually hiring into the plant first???

No sir.  Get job, then get badge...if you pass background checks, pee test, onsite training, etc.

[Paul]

You don't hire in. You work out of the Local Hall. Contact them on see what is available.

[Already Gone]

The term "red badge" sounds like a local jargon used at some particular plant or another.  What you really need is unescorted access and whatever training the site requires before they will admit you to work -- GET, Radworker, ... etc.

Normally, this process starts after you are hired.

However, if you are local to one of the Illinois Exelon plants, some of the trades offer their members the opportunity to take this training during the slow periods while they are unemployed.  Call your BA and ask him if they have such a program in place for you.  If so, they can send you to the training center to complete the training in anticipation of hiring you out to a broker at outage time.  If you are thinking of traveling into another local for work, they may have such a program that your BA may know nothing about - so you might have to get in touch with the BA at that local for info.

This process is not available everywhere, but it provides a pool of tradespersons who are ready to hire when outage time comes around, and alleviates the bottleneck of trying to train hundreds of people in the week before the outage starts.