Hanford

[roadhp]

Snowman, I didn't pull the rods on the sun, matter of fact I haven't done as much as I wanted to, but I have worked Fernald, Mound, and Rocky Flats.  At each of these sites, the house techs all said they would never be replaced by contractors while there were techs on site, and at each of these sites they were.  No, they aren't as big as Hanford, but the bigger they are, the harder they fall.  It's just a matter of time, and you might still have all the time you need.  But to your point that the number of techs equals the techs that were there before ARRA is just my point.  Before ARRA, they didn't have the projects they had during the ARRA, and all of the plants were in mothballs.  Tell me this, since I don't know and don't have access to the seniority list anymore:  were there any techs hired before the ARRA started that were laid off?  End of line.

[105KW]

.  Tell me this, since I don't know and don't have access to the seniority list anymore:  were there any techs hired before the ARRA started that were laid off?  End of line.

No.
105KW 

[devildog]

I know many techs out there that are NRRPT qualified and to tell you the truth I would not trust them with surveying dirt, and on the other hand there are many techs out there that have trouble passing the DOE or NEU that are the best techs I have ever been around. The tech who came up from the trenches. The point I am trying to make is a tech is a tech. This is not the 80's or 90's where if you failed the drug test you went to work for DOE for 5 years and return to the power plants. The outages are so short you need to supplement your income. I prefer to sleep in my own bed watch my kids grow up instead of missing birthdays, holidays and chasing outages. Some techs do not want to travel far . I was always willing and able to travel  and when  the man asked me to. Does that make me a better tech? NO !!! Being on the road is the best job in the world if your 20 , 30 with no family. It is not that much fun when your older and have a family. The work in the DOE world is different than an outage. The plant is losing millions of dollars a day they are not running. Your pushed to get it down fast and on time.To tell you the truth i got burnt out because I  have I have all my limbs, not 100 years old and then you have techs bragging about "throwing no hitters" DOE we do not have that pressure. We do it slow and steady. After working 19 years in nuclear power and picking up 17 R lifetime it was time for a change. In a decade at DOE i picked up 500 mrem and wore a respirator a dozen times. Which job sounds better? Steady income,benefits,home with the family or chasing outages,being away from your family and cobra? The great thing about being a US citizen is the Choice is yours. Just don't call people out for choosing DOE or the road. that is not fair. You are no better than us and we are no better than you.

[snowman]

Good Evening, I'm John Snowman and this... is America's Least Wanted. Tonight, we need your help in finding a nuclear blogger that goes by the name of...El Duke'. He's the ringleader of a gang of former DOE subcontractors earning $100K/year that made union scale wages plus per diem during the Stimulus years, only to later post negative, spiteful writings on the Internet about the union and their former places of employment. These are bad people, America.
El Duke' himself is wanted for questioning in connection with the rambling posts he has made on several nuclear web sites and we need your help in getting this guy off the internet...and fast. Authorities say he can be easily identified by atrocious spelling, poor grammar, massive run-on sentencing, and perhaps the worst... the heinous use of dangling participles. Law enforcement officials state to use extreme caution while reading his writings, they're that dangerous.
El Duke' avoids staying in sleazy motels, instead preferring to travel the USA in a start of the art RV, or flying in private jets to nuclear facilities around the country where he has luxury rental cars waiting for him. Authorities believe he's headed to a 14 day outage, give or take a day, somewhere east of the Mississippi. He will then disappear until the fall where he will re-surface to work another 14 day outage, give or take a day. He's gonna be one tough cookie to find.
But if you know the whereabouts of one El Duke', please call our Crime Stoppers hotline tonight and let's get this disgruntled guy off cyberspace before he posts more bad stuff about the former places he has worked. America, let's catch this guy.

[105KW]

Good Evening, I'm John Snowman and this... is America's Least Wanted. Tonight, we need your help in finding a nuclear blogger that goes by the name of...El Duke'. He's the ringleader of a gang of former DOE subcontractors earning $100K/year that made union scale wages plus per diem during the Stimulus years, only to later post negative, spiteful writings on the Internet about the union and their former places of employment. These are bad people, America.
El Duke' himself is wanted for questioning in connection with the rambling posts he has made on several nuclear web sites and we need your help in getting this guy off the internet...and fast. Authorities say he can be easily identified by atrocious spelling, poor grammar, massive run-on sentencing, and perhaps the worst... the heinous use of dangling participles. Law enforcement officials state to use extreme caution while reading his writings, they're that dangerous.
El Duke' avoids staying in sleazy motels, instead preferring to travel the USA in a start of the art RV, or flying in private jets to nuclear facilities around the country where he has luxury rental cars waiting for him. Authorities believe he's headed to a 14 day outage, give or take a day, somewhere east of the Mississippi. He will then disappear until the fall where he will re-surface to work another 14 day outage, give or take a day. He's gonna be one tough cookie to find.
But if you know the whereabouts of one El Duke', please call our Crime Stoppers hotline tonight and let's get this disgruntled guy off cyberspace before he posts more bad stuff about the former places he has worked. America, let's catch this guy.

Now that is funny stuff ..This what we need more humor!..I enjoy reading the more upbeat and informative posts than bashing each other.
have a great weekend
105KW

[duke99301]

I am not going to point out the guys name who never spells anything right.  snowman if your  looking I right here in the tri cities. do not have to go far.
I spent my time in some of these places and more.  but I moved on and out of the heard. now as for the older techs I see I am saying it sad they have to be here working , rad honey told me of an old friend out there thats 70 years old .
outage I was just at site and they took to older hp's out ,  when I was at SQN last fall we had a DOE tech that been around a long time but had to be re trained. he was could not belive they used puters to do surveys. and no they do not use impactors here. I had to train a lot of FOBs in thed old days
And now we have other coming back trying to catch up DOE can make yo for get things in the HP world . But I made some good money during the super fund days.  what did my friend say? sit in the truck do not touch t radio and leave the AC alone.
as for hanford 11 years there good place when it was running ha some very good people there sad most oare gone .
if I had stayed I woul be at the Vit plant running it why you say will I was an NPO back then. smeone showed me a list of operators still there I would have been #4 on the list. I am glad I am gone and never looked back. No regrets it funny to hear storys about something I around when it happend out there sad to see some of the buildings go.
so snowman comeone over to the dug out and say hi and spend a few and have fun . the owners a good friend of mine I be there this summer when the baseball games over. maybe rad hony and her friends will come to wean all have a hot dog and root for the home team.
now enough of this I got to go watch some guys put a RX back in place and make some steam. have a nice easter and I hope you understand my life is good thanks

[Already Gone]

Y'know?  The old joke about the difference between a deconner and an HP being a pen really wasn't far off the mark.

You can train any idiot to carry a meter and get readings, but what good are they if they are not communicated clearly to the people who have to do the work?

If you can't communicate a clear thought, you have no business bashing ANY other tech for being too old, or needing to be retrained, or anything else.

[tolstoy]

Okay. Time for my two-bits and thanks for asking.

I've worked DOE, commerical ,and university. I find it hard to believe that a few presumably professional adult men and women and sticking their tongues out at each other and playing the 'I'm better than you game.' Key word is 'presumably.'

[Marlin]

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[RRhoads]

I am not going to point out the guys name who never spells anything right.  snowman if your  looking I right here in the tri cities. do not have to go far.
I spent my time in some of these places and more.  but I moved on and out of the heard. now as for the older techs I see I am saying it sad they have to be here working , rad honey told me of an old friend out there thats 70 years old .

outage I was just at site and they took to older hp's out ,  when I was at SQN last fall we had a DOE tech that been around a long time but had to be re trained. he was could not belive they used puters to do surveys. and no they do not use impactors here. I had to train a lot of FOBs in thed old days
And now we have other coming back trying to catch up DOE can make yo for get things in the HP world . But I made some good money during the super fund days.  what did my friend say? sit in the truck do not touch t radio and leave the AC alone.
as for hanford 11 years there good place when it was running ha some very good people there sad most oare gone .
if I had stayed I woul be at the Vit plant running it why you say will I was an NPO back then. smeone showed me a list of operators still there I would have been #4 on the list. I am glad I am gone and never looked back. No regrets it funny to hear storys about something I around when it happend out there sad to see some of the buildings go.
so snowman comeone over to the dug out and say hi and spend a few and have fun . the owners a good friend of mine I be there this summer when the baseball games over. maybe rad hony and her friends will come to wean all have a hot dog and root for the home team.
now enough of this I got to go watch some guys put a RX back in place and make some steam. have a nice easter and I hope you understand my life is good thanks

Sir,"duke", your grasp of the written language is horrendous! Almost unbelievable!!!
Based on your writings alone, how can anybody take anything you "say" seriously??
I too thought that if you hit the Spell Check button, which it seems that you have, your posts would have been easier to comprehend, but this last post clearly shows I was wrong.
I have not been an HP very long...20 years this year and if one thing(not the only thing) stands out in those 20 years it is that an HP needs the ability to communicate verbally and in the written form...judging from your writing skills, one wonders how well you verbally communicate with your peers. Although I am not as educated as other in the industry, I did receive a GED and have the skills to read, write and comprehend the English language.
Rock on!

[Marlin]

Time for a cool off period.

Temporarily locked.

[Jason9x]

Sad to see all the negativity on this thread. And to the comments made about the "burger king" people from the shake and bake class, I take personal offense. I was in one of those classes. While some of us in that class were better than others, most were good people that wanted to learn. I felt we were held back or pushed aside. Most of us were stuck to routines and surveying crap out of the CA. This was not ok with me. How do you expect us to learn anything? I had to fight, beg and plead to get on job where there was job coverage. I would take any overtime and be the first to volunteer to muzzle up for a job. And when the lay off came, I sat and waited for a few months to go back to Hanford, (because everyone told me "Don't worry, you will be back soon. This always happens.") but soon I realized that wasn't going to happen. I traveled to a few naval bases and spent sometime at Los Alamos National Lab before I made Argonne National Lab my new home. Ive been very lucky to have worked with some great techs and I learned a lot from them. I now see the Hanford layoff as a blessing. Now that I have traveled and wound up at Argonne I have learned more than I ever would have at Hanford. And I will always be open to learning more. So if you ever find you way to Argonne, hit me up and maybe you can teach me something, or who knows, maybe a Burger King shake n baker can teach you something! 

P.S.
Ive never worked at Burger King, before I was an HPT I was an electrician.

[GLW]

....Ive never worked at Burger King, before I was an HPT I was an electrician.

well regardless of how, it was your destiny to eventually wear a paper hat,...

...Fear profits a man nothing...

[mars88]

It's too bad Argonne pays so poorly.  One would think being near Chicago would warrant more than $30/hr for a senior tech.

They're only paying $25/h and $95 per diem for the latest contract work.

[Jason9x]

Agreed. But I'm in it for the long haul. Just recently got married and the Mrs. is already talking babies. Wanted a stable place with good healthcare.

[Marlin]

Agreed. But I'm in it for the long haul. Just recently got married and the Mrs. is already talking babies. Wanted a stable place with good healthcare.

When momma ain't happy ain't nobody happy.   

[turkeypoint1967]

Its been my experience that the "shake and bake" techs are some of the best, (hardest working if nothing else) that the site has.  It would be nice if the site could find a way to trim the fat, and let more people who deserve a job get them.