Emergency Planning

[chief911]

Applied for and had a phone interview for Emergency Preparedness Specialist III/IV.  Face-to-face will follow in the next week or so.  I am trying to find out as much as I can before I go in.  What is the career path/promotion flowpath/potential in this area?  Also, what should I expect for the starting salary?

I will be retiring from the Navy in February 2007.  Brief background:
LDO LT (21 years)
Qualified PPWO/EOOW
2X Prototype Instructor
Last 7 years DOE/NRRO Assistant
B.S.N.E.T Excelsior, A.S. in Business
FEMA PDS certified, soon to be VEMA certified as CEMA

Thanks for the help.

Chief

[Roll Tide]

Morning Chief,
You need to look at the NRC website for some details as to what is entailed.

As far as promotion, you will probably have to get SRO Cert. to go very far. Questions about SRO Cert. (or license, but that is unlikely) would be appropriate for a follow-up interview. Vertical promotion within the utility is possible, but often requires a move outside the unit (or even utility) where you start.

With your current experience, you would be well suited to NRC EP after a commercial stint. I can't give details on salary, but www.nrc.gov does list pay-scales.

Good luck!

[MLew44]

Chief:

Emergency Planning is like an animal of its own at a commercial power station. Unlike Maintenance or Operations, you won't be involved in the daily routine of the plant. The good thing about it is you'll be able to take ownership of your own area without too much dependence on other departments. Depending on how your role is defined, you may be involved in the creation and execution of emergency drill scenarios, interface with offsite agencies (state, county governments, NRC), the administration and maintenance of emergency communication equipment / procedures, or emergency plan training – or a combination of all this. Having said that, emergency planning is a high profile job in some stations because of the close proximity to metropolitan areas. At other stations, it's not as important.

You'll probably get a small desk / cubicle setup. You'll be required to be on-call and to participate in drills and to respond to actual emergencies in some capacity (rare).

To be good at the job, a decent working knowledge of the plant is important. You'll have to know what's going on when they say that the suction line to the SI Pumps has sheared at the RWST, or that a loss of offsite power has occurred and the EDG output breakers have failed to close. You'll have to get familiar with Emergency Action Levels and the level of response to each category. You won't be responsible for initiating and mobilizing the E-Plan, but you'll have to have a working knowledge of it, which by definition includes a working knowledge of the plant. It will be next to impossible to get that knowledge "on the fly". Your department manager will have been formerly licensed. Some others in your department may also have been licensed or may have spent many years in certain disciplines (such as Rad Protection / Health Physics). To get an SRO cert (as Roll Tide mentioned) is not an easy thing – it takes several months. An SRO license takes longer (and is more difficult; ie. need that NRC license) and definitely involves some follow-on commitment to Operations. Additionally, most utilities won't just send you through a license class with the initial intent of getting an SRO cert (and without some additional other commitment either to Training or Operations).

I'm not trying to discourage you whatsoever. With your resume, you have plenty of choices and you can definitely write your own ticket. You may want to take this job as a stepping stone to something else. With that retirement from the military, maybe you wouldn't mind the desk in the cubicle for a few years without too much responsibility. Since you asked about the promotion potential in your original post, I'll tell you that it's bleak unless you intend – at some point – to edge over to Operations for a license or to some other discipline that may interest you (Maintenance, I&C, Training, etc.). So, whatever your intentions are, I'd say you can't really lose by taking the job. After all, it's not the military and you can quit any time you like!

Salary depends on a lot of factors and I can't guess reliably without knowing where the station is. It will be comparable to other first line supervisors at the station.

[chief911]

Thanks for the info.  I honestly had no idea how the flow works so that's why I asked.  I did figure out that there was going to be more required to advance than simply staying in the EP world.  I could go to ops if I need to, its been a while but I know I can do it.  Thanks again, I'll get back on after the interview with whatever they tell me.

[MLew44]

Hey Chief, one thing... (I re-read my own post and) I didn't mean to come off as a snob about promotions and getting a license and all that stuff. IE., an SRO license isn't the end-all of everything. And in a way, it's got its own burdens once you get it... kind of like getting married!! You'll be making a damn good living whatever you end up doing. What carriers & prototypes were you at? I started in the Nav around the same time as you... was on CVN-71, 72, and D1G staff.

[chief911]

No offense taken.  In fact, never read it like that. 

Like I said, I figured some operations quals/experience would be necessary some time in the process of employment to advance.  So far, the info I have gotten is in line with my expectations, just looking for a perspective from someone on the inside.

Thanks for the help.

I was a SPU from 86-89 @ MARF
CGN-38 from 89-92
Sea-returnee @ S8G 92-95 (worst tour of my career)
CVN71 95-99 (best tour of my career)
Did some time @ MTT before commissioning and before NRRO

[MLew44]

Thought we might have crossed paths; nope, I left 71 in 91. D1G following that and got out early '95. I went to prototype kicking & screaming, but it turned out to be a good tour and a good place to get out from. It's amazing how much of the Navy stuff I have forgotten in the 10+ yrs since being out -- seems like another life. I was very disappointed not making chief and basically couldn't stomach the prospect of another sea tour as E-6... thinking about it now, I'm glad I didn't have the temptation to stay in; it has worked out very well for me so far and I've been lucky in many ways. Commercial nuclear... MANY differences, but the one thing that's constant is the general top quality of people that we work with.