JenSHO,
Have you looked into attending the upcoming ANS conference in Washington DC? There is a trade show, where all the various nuclear players (AREVA, Westinghouse, NRC, etc.) have booths. In the past few years there have been a lot of companies looking for engineer types there.
Also, most of the engineers at a nuclear plant are not "nuclear engineers," the engineer population pretty much reflects the engineering industry as a whole (typically lots of electrical, mechanical, and civil engineers, some nuclear engineers, and a scattering of other types such as chemical, marine, etc.).
To me personally, the biggest difference between being in engineering and ops is the lifestyle (shiftwork or not). Some people thrive on shift work and the chance for 7 days off at a time, others get beat senseless by the constant sleep changes.
While engineers typically don't make as much money as operators (less overtime, usually working under exempt payroll practices), the money is still enough to make a very good living (for example, the engineers in my department typically make 90K - 140K).