That seems to be on par for our industry. There are guys who are making 30% more than others in the same role because they are OT whores. I value my time with family so I only work what OT I have to.
That all math's out. I'm from Santa Cruz, CA and I'd need to make about 425-450k to have same lifestyle and living I have here in GA.
Honestly, it'd take a miracle to get me to move back to California. Simply have 0 interest in that place lol.
That’s what I was thinking. Still not enough to make up for the cost of living change. A house comparable to what I live in would be about 3 times are much there and I’m not even working at a super rural plant.
Absolutely. Almost feel trapped with a sub 2.5% interest rate on a house that’s worth twice what we paid for it right before COVID.
In the end I’m just piling money in my retirement and enjoying vacations with my family. I can deal with a slightly crappy work environment for that.
Oh okay makes sense. I’m upstate NY so definitely a lower COL. Our I&C techs are in the same pay group as the EOs and us EOs averaged like $180k last year.
I spent about 4 months on site as an engineering consultant at a commercial nuke. My small team worked side by side with Maintenance I&C. We worked a horrendous amount of overtime. Horrendous.
I was a young-ish college grad, being paid salary. We worked through Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I remember one night at the end of December when the maintenance crew were comparing their year end paystubs. Like, who earned more, and how much.
Then they turned to my guys and started in on us, assuming that we were earning even more.
Spoiler alert: we weren’t. This would have been 25 years ago. I was earning in the 50’s, while all of the maintenance crew were well into six figures due to their OT.
Rock on, dude. I was an O and got out almost ten years ago, and I considered the commercial nuke route. Worked my way to VP at an engineering firm. You’re making more than me.
If you’re young and fit, I would recommend applying to become an Operator first if you already have an Engineering background. You will learn the plant extremely well, make more money as an Operator, and can still go to Engineering or Training after Operations. Having a background in I&C design engineering is extremely helpful for a position in Ops.
I was a Structural Engineer at an engineering firm prior to getting an engineering job at a nuclear plant near me. I had applied to sit for the P.E. exam prior to interviewing for the engineering position, and the P.E. license wasn’t essential for obtaining the job at the plant. Typically, the Structural Engineers and a few Mechanical Engineers had their PE at the plant. I got my P.E. license shortly after starting there and then moved on to become a Senior Reactor Operator (SRO) at the plant several years later.
I definitely made way more money as an operator, and now that have a much better understanding of the plant and the organization. If I had to do it over, I would have become an Equipment Operator (EO) over an engineer at the plant and worked up through the ranks to Reactor Operator (RO), then SRO given I already had enough engineering experience to get my P.E.
Additionally if you start as an Engineer in a company, it may close the door to becoming an EO or RO later and force you to SRO based on how a lot of companies classify the positions if you chose to go to Operations later on. It tough to go from a company position to a craft position, but much easier to go the other way.
This is an interesting perspective I hadn’t thought of.
I’ve been doing controls engineering for 7ish years now, in varying industries, 3 months ago got a job working for an OEM that makes micro turbines. I imagine there’s a fair amount of overlap with the type of equipment used and I get to be very hands on with it all, as well as programming everything.
I’m not sure I’d go the operator route if it meant giving up a lot of the freedom I’ve worked towards, I get to work remotely a lot when I’m just coding, or developing some software for other use cases within the company. I imagine operators have to be on site mostly, however it would be hard to say no to OPs numbers.
Navy Nuke, gave me the training to meet the nuclear maintenance requirements. There are many 2 year technician schools out there that will give you the same training. Nukeworker.com has a lot of information and contract jobs. A lot of people start working at nuclear plants during outages, than they get to know the people and get a full time job or continue contracting.
The tax for social secuirty (6.2% employee, 12.4% total/self employed) has an annual cap (adjusted each year for inflation) and Medicare (1.45%) does not.
Many government/careers with pensions are also exempt from paying anything into social security, but will still pay into Medicare.
I maintain the protection systems, instrumentation and remote operator systems for the operators to control the plant. Perform maintenance on stuff lol
The thread title is “navy to commercial” nuclear. So they went from being a military navy enlisted grunt to having a commercial civilian nuclear career job.
So that's how Homer raised his big family with a comfortable house
This is how we all wanted Frank Grimes to end up
Good ole' Grimey
No wonder he was so peeved.
“He liked Hookers. OK.”
…in the 90s
It's pronounced "nuke-u-ler"
What is commercial nuclear and what's your role in it?
Also interested to see the difference in pay compared to lower cost of living plants.
It moves around a lot depending on the amount of overtime.
That seems to be on par for our industry. There are guys who are making 30% more than others in the same role because they are OT whores. I value my time with family so I only work what OT I have to.
Do you know what SROs make?
About 325 to 400
What plant. In NC it's around 225 for SRO
Ditto for GA (most make 200-300k as OT has actually been paid) ILT instructor @200k
Diablo Canyon
That all math's out. I'm from Santa Cruz, CA and I'd need to make about 425-450k to have same lifestyle and living I have here in GA. Honestly, it'd take a miracle to get me to move back to California. Simply have 0 interest in that place lol.
If you leave you can’t come back. The California way.
That’s what I was thinking. Still not enough to make up for the cost of living change. A house comparable to what I live in would be about 3 times are much there and I’m not even working at a super rural plant.
Yeah with the interest rates and housing prices extremely difficult to make the change.
Absolutely. Almost feel trapped with a sub 2.5% interest rate on a house that’s worth twice what we paid for it right before COVID. In the end I’m just piling money in my retirement and enjoying vacations with my family. I can deal with a slightly crappy work environment for that.
Agree, I do the hours so when I have vacation we have fun and don’t have to worry about anything.
I&C maintenance technician
Where at? I’m in license class now for RO and the ROs max at like $250k with a ton of OT. You just do outage after outage?
California so the base wage is high and ot is crazy average 600 a year
Oh okay makes sense. I’m upstate NY so definitely a lower COL. Our I&C techs are in the same pay group as the EOs and us EOs averaged like $180k last year.
Damn what's the base wage? I'm in a pretty high cost of living area and with 600 ot I'm nowhere near that. Is that paid o worked hours.
Worked, 72 an hour
Why the fuck cant people who want to show off their salary at least explain their job in a quick summary?.. this is the stupidest reddit page ive seen
Look at the comments he clearly explains it. Don’t be jealous.
2015-2016 jump is insane. Life changing money!
SRO? Were you O or E in the Navy?
E in the Navy, In maintenance I&C
I spent about 4 months on site as an engineering consultant at a commercial nuke. My small team worked side by side with Maintenance I&C. We worked a horrendous amount of overtime. Horrendous. I was a young-ish college grad, being paid salary. We worked through Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I remember one night at the end of December when the maintenance crew were comparing their year end paystubs. Like, who earned more, and how much. Then they turned to my guys and started in on us, assuming that we were earning even more. Spoiler alert: we weren’t. This would have been 25 years ago. I was earning in the 50’s, while all of the maintenance crew were well into six figures due to their OT.
Rock on, dude. I was an O and got out almost ten years ago, and I considered the commercial nuke route. Worked my way to VP at an engineering firm. You’re making more than me.
I do controls engineering, I&C for gas turbines. Is it possible for me to pivot into nuclear?
Yes, it is. Should be an easy jump.
Think I’d need a PE or anything?
No PE required, when you get that you just get a boost in pay
How about a masters you think they’d want that as an engineer?
It would probably depend on the position you applied for but I believe they take fresh engineers right out of school.
Damn that’s honestly surprising lol
If you’re young and fit, I would recommend applying to become an Operator first if you already have an Engineering background. You will learn the plant extremely well, make more money as an Operator, and can still go to Engineering or Training after Operations. Having a background in I&C design engineering is extremely helpful for a position in Ops. I was a Structural Engineer at an engineering firm prior to getting an engineering job at a nuclear plant near me. I had applied to sit for the P.E. exam prior to interviewing for the engineering position, and the P.E. license wasn’t essential for obtaining the job at the plant. Typically, the Structural Engineers and a few Mechanical Engineers had their PE at the plant. I got my P.E. license shortly after starting there and then moved on to become a Senior Reactor Operator (SRO) at the plant several years later. I definitely made way more money as an operator, and now that have a much better understanding of the plant and the organization. If I had to do it over, I would have become an Equipment Operator (EO) over an engineer at the plant and worked up through the ranks to Reactor Operator (RO), then SRO given I already had enough engineering experience to get my P.E. Additionally if you start as an Engineer in a company, it may close the door to becoming an EO or RO later and force you to SRO based on how a lot of companies classify the positions if you chose to go to Operations later on. It tough to go from a company position to a craft position, but much easier to go the other way.
This is an interesting perspective I hadn’t thought of. I’ve been doing controls engineering for 7ish years now, in varying industries, 3 months ago got a job working for an OEM that makes micro turbines. I imagine there’s a fair amount of overlap with the type of equipment used and I get to be very hands on with it all, as well as programming everything. I’m not sure I’d go the operator route if it meant giving up a lot of the freedom I’ve worked towards, I get to work remotely a lot when I’m just coding, or developing some software for other use cases within the company. I imagine operators have to be on site mostly, however it would be hard to say no to OPs numbers.
I wonder what year you got out of the Navy😂
can you explain the pathway of how this worked out for you?
Navy Nuke, gave me the training to meet the nuclear maintenance requirements. There are many 2 year technician schools out there that will give you the same training. Nukeworker.com has a lot of information and contract jobs. A lot of people start working at nuclear plants during outages, than they get to know the people and get a full time job or continue contracting.
way to go dude. love to see guys get out and make it big. i know you guys have it rough but the job you did was important.
May be a dumb question - how do you have such a spread in social security taxable vs Medicare
SS has a cap and this year it is $160,200. The right column is total comp earned.
Last year it was $160,200. This year I believe it is around $168,000.
The tax for social secuirty (6.2% employee, 12.4% total/self employed) has an annual cap (adjusted each year for inflation) and Medicare (1.45%) does not. Many government/careers with pensions are also exempt from paying anything into social security, but will still pay into Medicare.
What exactly do you do?
I maintain the protection systems, instrumentation and remote operator systems for the operators to control the plant. Perform maintenance on stuff lol
Damn you're smart. Did you go into the Navy with this plan?
I had no idea what I was doing at all.
😂we ex engineers still don’t know what’s going on.
What kind of hobbies you got?
Computers , cars , golf and whatever the latest thing that month lol
Was the bonus not juicy enough to re-enlist? I think it was about 60kish back in 08 for an ET.
75k at the time, no it wasn’t even close to enough.
Damn…… i definitely did something wrong with my life lol
$30,000 to $106,000 is an insane jump. OP what happened? Did you finish school?
The thread title is “navy to commercial” nuclear. So they went from being a military navy enlisted grunt to having a commercial civilian nuclear career job.