Coming back into Nuclear (Hatch)

[east2009]

Just thought I would say hello and tell you a little about me. Graduated HS in 1977. I went to work at Hatch in June or July 1978 as a PEO (after 3 months as a laborer at a fossil plant) and left in December of 1979 to go to work for RAD Services. I really wanted to pursue a career as a recording artist and thought that HP would be a great way to ensure that I wouldn't starve. They assigned me to a plant in Salem, NJ. My nuclear career  pretty much went downhill from there and very quickly. I was working 7 days a week 12 hours a day as a level II technician. (I should have known things were heading downhill when someone unknown caved in the driver door of my just painted '76 Camaro on my 1st day there). Anyway, after about 3 or 4 weeks, the boss comes into the trailor and tells me there is a problem with my preliminary psychological screening exam. What ! They flew me to Penn to meet with a shrink (about midnight) who gave me an exam that consisted of about 700 questions (called the Minnesota Exam or something like that) followed by the ink blot test. After about 2 days back in NJ the boss came in and handed me the report which said I was unfit to work in a nuclear facility, possibly homicidal and who knows what else. A year or so later I found out that the mental health field had deemed the test I took to be completely invalid and had quit using it. I was playing music for a living then and just let it go. That is the biggest regret of my life. I became a computer tech in 1992 and left the field in Dec 2005 after getting my real estate license. I wish there was a way I could go back to being a nuke. I absolutely loved the environment, the technology and most of the people. I spent almost 2 years at Hatch with the master keys to everything, including the remote shutdown panel, just to have some quack deem me unfit to even be onsite. I'm sure it would be impossible to try and get back in after over 20 years. By the way, I haven't injured anyone or been accused of needing mental therapy since. Ha. Any thoughts ?

[Roll Tide]

I split this out, and moved it to a separate thread.

It looks like you want to be a road tech again. There are needs for good deconners for the Spring outage season. But look around here first. It is a different world than 1980 in the nuke field.

[east2009]

Thanks, Rolltide, for the reply. I would absolutely love to go back to being a road tech. Even if I only did it during the winter months when real estate is all but dead, it would be great. But I would seriously consider going back full time. I would love a heads-up on what I could expect to be required of me. We didn't have certifications and such back then. What is required now ? It would be great to know if going back is even an option for me. Anyone you could steer me to for a consultation ?

[Roll Tide]

To get back in the door, talk to Bartlett. They advertise here, so you can see their links / opportunities. The contractor demand season is typically Spring and Fall, with only a few jobs across the heart of Summer or Winter. Look around at the site here, you may be surprised at the differences.

[nukedog]

Roll tide is right it has changed, for one thing they got this thing called 10CFR26. That ran half the techs out of the BIZ and saved the other half lives.

Good luck

[SloGlo]

east2009.... rolltide is dead on with his bartlett reference as they are today's version of rad services, numanco, and irm all rolled into one. 
10cfr26 is a nice way of saying ffd, or fitness for duty and that succinctly says iffen ya do drugs or alcohol then ya can't work.... sorta like airline pilots.
certs are still a pain, but iffen yinz wanna be a road hp, then look into the nrrpt (national registry of radiation protection technologists), but it takes at least 5 years experience to sit for the exam. other disciplines may have certs, you'd have to check them out. 
iffen i wuz you, i'd try to go on the road with the it thing.  again, bartlett would be a good starting place as they had basic it going 12 years ago in the outage biz with their telemetrical dosimetry program and other applications.  but with the it certs you may have, that'd probably be your most lucrative aspect of this wunnerful employment endeavor.

[east2009]

Not sure if a deviation from the HP side of "coming back" is getting off topic or not, but I'll take my chances to say thanks for the replies and give my response to them.

Interesting. I hadn't considered the IT angle. I guess I was hung up on my reasons for leaving IT to begin with....I'm tired of having to look for a job every three or fours years  when my employer decides to outsource the IT dept. Unlike "civilian" contracting, I would presume that Nuke IT contracting would pay better and be much more predictable. Especially, if I was working outages. I supppose there is a lot of semi-permanent IT placement as well. As for certifications, all I can truly claim is my MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) certs for NT 4.0 Worksation, 4.0 Server and 4.0 Server in the Enterprise. (Remember that?) They retired the 4.0 MCSE after I completed the core exams but before I completed my 2 electives. Like the old HP, I came in at a time when your demonstrated skills meant more than your ability to pass a Microsoft OS trivia exam. I can talk to a so-called tech for 5 or 10 minutes and tell you if I, in terms of skills, would hire him or not. Who cares if a MCSE holder knows the maximum amount of RAM that can be addressed by Windows 2003 Server if he/she doesn't know how to Ghost a machine for a rollout of new PCs or troubleshoot real world network connectivity problems with all end user devices. Unfortunately, I fear that without the current certs, I may not get past HR to have the opportunity to discuss my real knowledge with an IT director. I've supported and administered everything from DOS 3.0 thru Windows 2000 and even some Novell along the way. Sorry for my lack of economy with words. I'll strive for shorter posts in the future.