Dresden

[AS55555]

I note Dresden is advertising for a RPM. Does anyone know why the last RPM left?

thanks

[keff]

Dresden is the very antithesis of teamwork and fun.  Talk about a depressing place....

[Dave Warren]

Yes, but you are a short drive up I-55 from seeing Daaaa Bears....

[BaronVonHawkeye]

I am looking at starting a career with Exelon and one of the places offered was Dresden.  Obviously from the comments, it does not sound like a great place to work as an outsider.  Does anyone have any info if you are working for Exelon in an engineering position?

[wlrun3@aol.com]

I am looking at starting a career with Exelon and one of the places offered was Dresden.  Obviously from the comments, it does not sound like a great place to work as an outsider.  Does anyone have any info if you are working for Exelon in an engineering position?

...dresden...first commercial nuclear reactor...anchor of the largest and strongest nuclear utility...in the shadow of the world's first self sustained nuclear reaction site...a stones throw from the world record holder accelerator and discoverer of the top quark...neighbor to the home base of the national reactor test site...engineer?...career?...you are so fortunate...good luck...make us proud...

[retired nuke]

Hmmm, don't know how they are to work for, but we (VY) keep losing our engineers to Exelon.....

[splitter]

Worked there a long time.  Great people, nice area, close to Chicago.  Best of the best

[joshdawopp]

I searched the website and couldn't find anything that sounded like the situation that I am currently in.  I just interviewed at Dresden for NLO and the interview went extremely well.  I took the POSS test and feel that I did pretty well on it although i haven't gotten the results back yet.  My dilemma is this:  I am suppose to get married on december 28th of this year.  Will the plant be ok with me leaving to get married as long as i make up to time or i'm ahead.  Any input on this would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,

Josh Dolph

[Nuclear NASCAR]

That will depend on your contract at Dresden.  Most plants you don't get vacation until after 1 year.  As far as making up time that's usually not allowed under a union contract though I'd never say never.  You might get lucky and have the 28th fall on a day off but seeing that it's on a Friday you might not e in luck there.  You'll want to see how long your probationary period is also.  If it's a year you may have to make a difficult decision.  I'm not trying to put any kind of a damper on your nuptials but I don't want to give unfounded hope either. 

Best of luck on your test results and Thanks for your service to our country.

Tom

[keff]

Congrats on your impending marriage.  As far as Dresden goes, do NOT plan on anything they say they'll do for you as far as time off goes.  They plan downpower for any time it happens to be a weekend, a holiday, or if you've got something fun going on.  You're expected to worship the OPs schedule and if you have a life, that is just too bad.  Unless your engagement/marriage is on the emergency outage schedule, approved for work and meets the line item in the "checkbook" for planned activity, you'll have to hope your co-workers will cover the OT for you.  Based on the time of year you mentioned, one unit will likely be just coming out of outage, which means a few weeks of misery afterwards. 

Although not normally a pessimist, I found that with Dresden, the glass isn't just half empty,  chances are you spilled it on your favorite shirt, broke it and then cut your foot on the pieces. 

[joshdawopp]

During that time I wont be qualified to do anything yet anyways, so if im ahead wouldn't it not be that big of a deal ?  Just wondering how this stuff works.  My uncle is the ops manger at the byron plant maybe he could help me out a little bit.  But I really want this job however if my fiance isn't happy then I wont be happy and theres no point in making good money if your life is going to be all screwed up.

[Nuclear NASCAR]

During that time I wont be qualified to do anything yet anyways, so if im ahead wouldn't it not be that big of a deal ?  Just wondering how this stuff works.  My uncle is the ops manger at the byron plant maybe he could help me out a little bit.  But I really want this job however if my fiance isn't happy then I wont be happy and theres no point in making good money if your life is going to be all screwed up.

You'll have a probationary period of 6 months to a year (possibly more depending on the plants contract) during which you won't be eligible to miss work unless it's a family emergency, FMLA covered illness, or a situation that's specifically outlined in your plants contract. 

If you mean that your uncle could help you out by answering your questions and helping to eliminate any doubts I think that's a great idea.  I would caution against having him call in a favor to get you something not available to the rest of your classmates in the NLO class.  You'll hopefully be working with these people for many years to come and the last thing you want is to get special treatment above them.  (If I'm wrong on the second thing don't take it as an accusation.  I've just seen over the years how well special treatment is appreciated) 

As far "During that time I wont be qualified to do anything yet anyways, so if im ahead wouldn't it not be that big of a deal ? "
That depends on your qualification process.  At some plants you're in class for most of year and then you go out and qualify on everything.  At others you get your initial class (2 to 3 months) out of the way, qualify on your first watch station, and then have class on your next watch station.  You'll also have regularly scheduled training with your crew every 5 or 6 weeks for 1 week of continuing training.

Everything may fall into place and you'll be able to take a day or 2 off at the right time and get married when you're planning on it.  I would talk it over with your fiancee and prepare for the possibility of having to reschedule just in case.  I wholeheartedly agree that if you're not happy all the money in the world won't fix it.  However, your wedding day, while one of the most special in your life, will pale in comparison with many other events in your marriage.  When my wife and I were planning our wedding the main thing we were looking for was a day that was ours and didn't have anything else around it.  Your wedding is scheduled for the day after my birthday.  I can tell you that if I'd had it to plan I wouldn't have planned it for 2 days after Christmas.  It's special to me but it's just another day around the holidays in reality. 

Don't hesitate to PM me if you have anything you'd like to talk about privately.  Talk to your uncle, he'll be able to answer your questions completely, including exactly how much the job will pay and what you can expect to make yearly.  It's a big decision and I wish you the best in making it.  More importantly, I wish you the best of luck on getting the job offer.

[joshdawopp]

I appreciste your honesty.  I personally can get married whenever it doesnt matter to me but the boss MUST have a DECEMBER wedding.  And she says if we cant do it then we'll just have to wait another year but ill get over it.  Exelon isn't the only place that I have applied to but it is my first choice.  My interview went extremely well according to the interviewers so i have a feeling that as long as i passed my tests I should get the job offer, i could be wrong though as this is a competitive and unpredictable business.  However i did fly al the way from hawaii for a weekend to do so which should tell them how much i want to work for them.  I applied for an HP position also although as an ELT i found Radcon annoying to say the least. 

[justme]

As I understand it, you haven't accepted a job yet?  Just a suggestion, but when they call you to offer a job, discuss it with them.  Honesty is always best.  They are the ones to best tell you how to proceed.  Take the earliest start date they offer.  When my husband accepted his operator position, they gave him a mid december start date.  He tried to get a later one, but they insisted.  Good thing because he is ahead on the senority list and gets qualified for vacation earlier than most of his classmates who started in January.  They had to wait another year for vacation.   He didn't start classes right away, so there may be some flexibility for you wedding.
Don;'t know how they do it at Dresden, but asking doesn't hurt.
Hope it helps some

[scruffy]

A house tech told me that the 5 week outage is only 15-18 days breaker to breaker

[klsas]

It's been awhile since the last Dresden post, so I'll get it re-started. I just finished another Dresden outage. It was my best Comed/Exelon outage ever. It was actually one of my best outages anywhere. I have been blessed to always have good people to work with, but the crew I worked with in the Rx Building was great to work with. I actually looked forward to going in every morning. The Bartlett techs, house lead and Exelon traveller's made every day fun. It appears that Harry has done a good job with the RP department and Liz is doing well with the Bartlett techs. If you haven't been to Exelon in a while, it might be worth another try. If you get to Quad next spring, find the house RP that does the chicken joke.

Keith

[nrlien]

Any new comments, feelings about Dresden?

[jumanji]

If someone lives in Morris and comes down to dresden do they need winter tires or all season can be enough? and are the roads cleaned after snow? and how much is the travel time in winter usually.