# Nuke jobs



## mizzoueng (Apr 19, 2010)

So a friend told me about a "Supervisor of Nuclear Maintenance" position that opened up recently. They want someone with 4-8 years of experience, 4 of which can be college if you are a BSME. There is not mention of a PE needed, but CWI is preferred but not required.

I know some of you guys are in the nuke field, is this more of a maintenance worker position, or is there actual engineering involved with this?

Normally I would just call and ask the hiring manager, but SWMBO thinks I will get irradiated or it will "blow up". I told her I would ask some of you nukies before calling the hiring manager.


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## mizzoueng (Apr 21, 2010)

Maybe not, I thought there was at least one nukie on the boards.


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## Supe (Apr 21, 2010)

If it's for a company that does maintenance work and not a full time plant position, there is still minimal engineering involved. A friend of mine is one of the higher ups for the Maintenance Division (they also do a lot of outage work, etc), and a significant portion of what he does is documentation-oriented.

If its full time work at a plant, then it depends on your definition of "engineering." You've got welding repairs to oversee, mechanical equipment that needs servicing, etc. etc., but a lot of it is more troubleshooting and predetermined maintenance than engineering solutions.

My $.02.


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## mizzoueng (Apr 21, 2010)

It is for the plant, not a contractor. I wouldn't mind the oversight and paperwork, its pretty much what I do now for the consulting firm I work for. I guess the question I have is this: why would they want to hire someone with minimal to no experience with nuclear reactors for a maintenance supervisor position?


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## Inigo Montoya (Apr 21, 2010)

I just work for Vizzini to pay the bills. There's not a lot of money in revenge.


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## Supe (Apr 21, 2010)

mizzoueng said:


> It is for the plant, not a contractor. I wouldn't mind the oversight and paperwork, its pretty much what I do now for the consulting firm I work for. I guess the question I have is this: why would they want to hire someone with minimal to no experience with nuclear reactors for a maintenance supervisor position?



A lot of it will probably be BOP work. If it's reactor issues or problems, it will fall under someone besides maintenance, or will be heavily supervised/guided by engineering.


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## Flyer_PE (Apr 21, 2010)

I spent a couple years as a first line supervisor in electrical maintenance. I was usually responsible for 14 union electricians. There was a lot of troubleshooting and a lot of paperwork for processing work packages. No engineering degree required for the job but I learned a LOT in a very short time.


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## chaosiscash (Apr 21, 2010)

Most of the nuke maintenance supervisors here are typically guys that worked as union tradesmen that decided to jump over to management. Typically they are craft supervisors based on their skilled trade. However, some of our ops supervisors are degreed engineers. (we're not a nuke power plant, but similar in a lot of ways). That being said, if you want to get in the nuke power door, sounds like a decent opportunity to do so.


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## Supe (Apr 21, 2010)

chaosiscash said:


> That being said, if you want to get in the nuke power door, sounds like a decent opportunity to do so.



X2. Working for a client and being familiar with their work process and documentation is a big plus when they start new construction. Even if you don't get into an engineering role, it's easy to transition into turnover/commissioning groups that way.


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## Flyer_PE (Apr 21, 2010)

Supe said:


> chaosiscash said:
> 
> 
> > That being said, if you want to get in the nuke power door, sounds like a decent opportunity to do so.
> ...


X3. I would add that the way the industry is structured right now, the work processes are VERY similar across the industry. Sometimes the names and titles change but functionally, the processes are nearly identical for every plant I've dealt with. Once you get to know how one plant does things, it's not a big leap to figure out how the rest are doing it.


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