I don't know what kind of career path being a reactor engineer would plot out for someone, but at Harris, I think it makes sense to stay within operations. With the new plants that will most likely be built in the next 5-10 years, there will be many new operations positions being created. That being said, I believe Progress will be drawing their operators from their current fleet of operators at Robinson, Brunswick and Harris (maybe some from Crystal River that are willing to relocate from Florida, but they'll have the Levy County AP-1000 down there). They will have to make a new organizational tree for the AP-1000s, which most of it will be separate from the current PWR fleet, since it is a brand new type of plant. I think I'd like to stay in operations and try to become an SSO at the new reactors and then attempt to move into upper management from there. I will continue to discuss these opportunities with SROs at Harris.
There is a major difference from what it seems is your situation at D-B, being that there is no direct RO or SRO class without being an NLO first. That might change however with our current staffing issues that could face us in the coming years.