Hi,
I'm a new member here. I have had a certain fascination with Radiation and electronics and want to see if a career in the nuclear power industry might be right for me. First off, Do facilities give tours any more in a post 9/11 world? The closest to me would be Monticello, MN NPP, though I'd be willing to travel for the opportunity to see a working facility and talk to the workers first hand........
Wanna work nuclear?!? move south and east, very far south and very far east,...
Monti is a great little station with really awesome people, it is also stuck at the far northwest end of commercial nuclear power east of the continental divide,....
you may start at Monti, but most likely will not complete a full career there considering your age,....
the greatest opportunity is in Region 2,....
Regions 1 and 3 are either places to begin a career fully knowing you will be moving on, or places to fade into the sunrise because quite frankly; you don't need the utilities' retirement plan, but you do like the money and the change of seasons,...
....I also don't know where to start to look into which particular niche in the field would be best for me. I graduated from college a few years ago, with a degree in German after flunking out of mechanical engineering school because I couldn't handle the calculus needed. Does this more or less dash my chances? Or are there jobs where minimal math or more basic math is all that's needed?........
there are a slew of threads here concerning the various utility screening and entrance exams,...
read through those threads to assess your ability to do well on the peculiar aspects of logic and skills the utilities require for new technical hires,....
....I have a small collection of obsolete radiation monitoring equipment which I love to tinker with. I am also beginning to dabble in gamma spectroscopy, so I thought that maybe radiation monitoring at a plant could be an option. I am aware that this could involve a lot of math though.. or if there are positions that deal in calibrating and repairing radiation measuring equipment that might interest me too. I also had thought about the possibility of something like general maintenance of a plant, which would be pseudo similar to what I do now for a living, just more complex and important.....
radiation monitoring at a plant is not like tinkering and dabbling at a workbench,...
I do not know a good analogy for commercial power radiation protection monitoring in any other endeavour,...
it's a bit unique, and it seems to attract unique folks,...
as to math,...
at the technical level it involves being able to manipulate mathematic formulas and models, not develop them,...
more complex?!?!? probably,... I would dam near bet a bunch that 70% of that complexity is procedural compliance driven,....
more important?!?!?
if you're keeping the nursing home cool in the summer and warm in the winter for my grandmother you got a pretty important job from my perspective,...
but the work is important to the plant's licensed activities, so you have some intrinsic and negotiable value within the arena of licensed activities,...
oh yeah,
thee licensed activity(ies) is all about pushing electrons into the grid, it's the only reason the plant exists,...
contrary to some opinions; commercial nuclear power plants do not exist to give radiation protection and security protection types jobs, that's a good thing to keep in mind some days,...
........The only nuclear industry person that I talked to told me that the industry really only hires Navy nuke vets, I don't know if that's true or not.. So you see I really know very little about the industry. Any insight, or if you guys can point me in the direction of information I would be very appreciative.
no,...
Navy nukes are a known commodity, not a demonstrated commodity,...
a Navy nuke should be able to successfully complete a commercial nuclear power training program,...
but many people who were never Navy nukes also perform quite well to exemplary,...
DO NOT join the Navy because you want a commercial nuke power job,...
that is not enough reason,...
