ALARA Dog,
Please understand that I was not trying to insult you. I have walked in your shoes. Well, I was never house, and I started as a deconner, but other than that, I was a deconner, then a rad tech, then a supervisor and then an engineer. I can accept that you don't know what OTHER places pay, but it's a fair assumption to bet they pay about the same as your site pays. If they didn't, no one would go there. The technicians at Duke make $26. (I believe, I've never worked at Duke as an RP, but I DO ask questions, and that's what I'm told.) I've seen RP techs get as much as $35/hr. $28 is probably the average at power plants.
I think Sr Deconners get as much as $18/hr. At least thats what I was told at DC Cook. I haven't been a deconner in almost two decades.
ALARA people get different pay at different sites, with different titles. An ALARA Tech gets less than an ALARA Engineer, which gets less than an ALARA Coordinator... all pretty much the same job. Pay ranges $32-$42 for the average joe. Radiological Engineers Typically get $42-$65, but can get over $100 easily if they are special.
If you want to know how many outages you can get a year, check out our outage schedule, or visit the major companies wish lists.
It's VERY likely that you will not get Rad Engineer, Supervisor, or ALARA jobs every outage until you are 'established'. Established meaning you have been one at enough plants that you can return as one.
If you are too proud to swing a meter, and you only want Engineer work every outage, you most likely will work 5 weeks in the spring and 5 weeks in the fall until you are 'established'. If you are willing to swing a meter to fill in the gaps, you will never be unemployed. Heck, when I was interested in traveling for a living, I was lucky to get the week of July 4th and the week of Christmas off. I worked the rest of the year and saved every dime. I took every job offered to me until I was able to be picky.
Also be advised that 30 years at one plant does not equal 30 years at 40 plants. They don't all do things the way you are accustomed to doing them, and its not the wrong way. It's like benchmarking for the rest of your life.