Agree, but if you are working at a site with 2 or more units, you may be involved in re-fuel for EACH UNIT, so if there were 3 units, you may be working some type of outage schedule every 6 months or so. More with less! Yee-hooo!
Yeah you don't need a degree, but if you have no experience you will be starting very low on the totem pole depending on where you want to work. If I were you I'd send my resume to some plants that have the openings you are looking for. If you get no response than you should find out why. A great place for feedback is by using a HeadHunter. He will be easier to contact and more knowledgable about the entire industry's hiring specifics than a lone HR person from one company. Depending on what degree you have, he may be able to get you an interview as earlt as next week which could lead to you talking to people who have many of the answers you are looking for. Even if you don't get the job, just going to the interview and taking test/talking to the interviewers should push you in the right direction. I assume you want to be an Aux Operator? Indian Point just hired an ex-Hatian police chief with little experience. They needed some diversity, but still shows you don't need much of a resume to get in depending on the plant. If you are able to move out of the area you could probably get a job in the next 6 months without getting another degree, depending on what your degree is now, how good you do on POSS, how well you interview, if you know anybody at the plant, etc.