I don't know if any of you folks are in the energy business, but this is a pretty big deal (assuming they can get all the required approvals):

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/duke-energy-and-progress-energy-to-merge-113192194.html

No kidding, that IS big news. I interviewed January 09 with Progress Energy at their Crystal River FL plant for an aux operator opening, once we got word that Freightliner was kicking us out the door in 60 days. Apparently, they didn't have any use for a 50 year old ex-navy nuke that hadn't been in the trade for 12 years. Hiring manager wasn't on top of his game either - showed up and told the group he hadn't had a chance to even look at our resumes, much less print them off, and toward the end of the afternoon seemed to be in more of a hurry to get home than really do any interviews. Others there interviewing said word thru the grapevine was that plant had been having problems with a high rate of turnover in personnel - I could imagine why. HM didn't seem too thrilled that I was single - ie, wouldn't have to buy a house and have a family and mortgage to hold me there if I did get a better offer one day - and when he asked me why I was looking to get back in the nuke field after 12 years, didn't seem to like the answer "because my present job is going away and there's nothing else left in NC".

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Just say "NO" to Ethanol - Drive Diesel

Mitchell Oates
Mooresville, NC
'87 300D 212K miles
'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

I don't know much about Crystal River, it's one of the few US nukes I've never been to. There are plenty of operators approaching retirement age in the industry, so there should be some demand. Keep an eye on this site if you are serious about finding something in the industry:

http://www.roadtechs.com/nuke/wwwboard/index.html

I work for Duke in an unregulated state - My (coal) plant will still be fighting the same battles (O&M spend, capital budgets, outage schedules, old equipment, old maintenance guys...) that it battles now.

Maybe I *should* have gone as a nuclear operate when I was done being an RC-divver...oh well =)

(I 'found' the attached pic around the plant this morning, distribute as you see fit =)

-John

Attached Thumbnails

 

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2009 Kia Sedona
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Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

Thanks for the link.

Hmmmm..... already seeing a few items that are interesting, particularly the QC openings - I was qualified both as Subsafe and Nuclear QA Inspector.

Can't be any worse than playing Stationary Engineer at a 35 year old thermal energy plant at UTSA, and trying to keep a 35 year old DeLaval Enterprise diesel generator running.

Sudden thought - word I've had over the past two years is that many nuke plants use those same diesel generators for emergency backup. Hmmmm indeed.

__________________
Just say "NO" to Ethanol - Drive Diesel

Mitchell Oates
Mooresville, NC
'87 300D 212K miles
'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

They all use emergency diesel generators (at least two, sometimes 3 or 4) usually in the 3-6MWe range. Some use DeLavals, also lots of Fairbank-Moss and some EMDs. The machines normally only run for testing, but they get lots of PM. You should look into it.

That's funny.

I know some guys who used to work for DESI (before they were bought out by... I can't remember who bought them).

Here's another article:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-10/duke-energy-to-buy-progress-energy-for-13-7-billion.html