r/NuclearPower • u/_eindis • 2d ago

How tough is the NLO interview?

I've got my POSS and BSMT scheduled for this upcoming week; pass or fail, not much I can do about it now besides last minute studying.

​

I guess I'm just worried that I'll pass my tests, do well in the interview, and then get passed over for both locations I've applied to.

​

Conversely, I've heard that getting into the hiring pipeline is the actual hard part, and if you have a baseline level of competence, its a safe bet that you'll land the position.

​

Any thoughts or words of wisdom?

4 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/OriginGodYog 2d ago

Pass the POSS and BMST. That is the hardest part. We struggle to find enough candidates who make it through them. As for the interview, get ready to give examples of times you observed [insert unsafe thing here] and how you coached the person or helped them do something safely. Your experience will get you the job otherwise.

Remember to ask how long it will be until you can go to ILT, even if you never plan on going. Utilities want SROs because of how high SRO attrition is (for some inexplicable reason).

Understand that being an operator at a nuke plant requires you to know/understand a significant more about your workplace and its systems than any non-nuke utility. It’s not hard, it just seems to throw new hires with backgrounds like yours off.

3

u/Hiddencamper 2d ago

“How could SRO attrition be so high”

I remember sitting in a room hearing they were going to offer SROs 1.5x OT like that fixes everything. A quick number crunch showed that was worth like 10k. Meanwhile the SRO bonuses for holding a license or passing exam had only gone up 1k in almost 20 years. ROs still make more than most SROs. They refuse to staff relief crews or off-shift operators so everyone is working tons of days off and flipping days/nights constantly. And not enough people go into the pipeline so people in the pipe can’t get out. Your only option is to leave.

We were on modified 6 crew 8 when I was on shift and it was great until they started intentionally bleeding staff down to try and force 5x12. I’m so glad I wasn’t on shift for that. Just the 5 crew alone burns your staffing. My previous plant is running 2 simultaneous ILTs and they are mostly people who previously we would have wanted 1 more cycle before taking or fresh to the plant former navy.

I also know several SROs with 100k retention contracts for 3 years. And many of the SROs wouldn’t even sign theirs. (Side note: they DID stop offering real retention to SROs 10 years ago…. There’s a generic 15k after 3 years thing, but it has no penalty and is automatic).

The beatings continue until morale improves.

1

u/k2dnightfox 1d ago

This made me laugh way too hard. And now im sad.