Look at a DOE site in INEEL, with per diem for only 2 month. In order to qualify for per diem, you must prove you are maintaining another household back in your home state, so they know you have additional costs. Then to pull it away after 2 month on the excuse it is "Long Term." Long term is in the eye of the beholder. If they are unwilling to pay per diem, they should not be surprised that no body goes, regardless if the pay is $30/hr, or $1200 a week before taxes. My daughter, the jr. deconner makes over $1300/week with per diem at an outage, based on a $9.50 hour based rate, $85/day per diem, and 11.5 hour days/6 days a week. I could not understand why a senior would take such a pay cut. They claim they are "benefits" such as vacation and medical; however, if you were really ill you would not get the job in the first place to use the benefits. As for the vacation, you get your 2 weeks a year. A road traveler get 5 months of vacation time a year, especially if you file in a State like MA or WA getting around $550/wk unemployment. Maybe when the new nuke plants come online, and with a 5 year pipeline to go from deconner to senior, they may get desperate and raise some of the wages.