I dont see a rating merger being able to happen unless you can have a specialty NEC like mechanical, electrical, RADCON, chemistry, etc. Operating the plant may be one thing, especially when automation comes into play, but you cannot perform PMS and corrective maintenance without a strong background in that specialty.
The Navy should take a look at how civilian plants operate, and model this if they are looking at changing their program. Most of the plants on the outside already have most valves and equipment operable from the control room, yet there are still different maintenance trades as well as operators. Not saying that they could achieve the same thing being that they have much less people, but maybe make everyone an operator but each person has a specialty rating.
Jason