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Old 08-04-2009, 12:06 PM
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m47dragon m47dragon is offline
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How transferrable are the skills for operating naval vessel nuke plants and commercial plants?
How long does it take to train a newbie to do this? Presumably, one can't just pick someone off the street and get a nuclear plant operator within three months. Obviously, it's better to get someone with as close a background as possible to minimize the transition time.
Naval Nuclear Operators will have spent months in power school and will be well versed in the required theory. The time spent aboard ship gives them the practice.

Something those outside of the nuclear power industry may not be aware of is how INTENSELY every aspect of nuclear power plant operations is procedure driven. It's all written down (safe shut down, safe start up, safe operation, etc.) Additionally, every operating plant has a control room simulator...they can practice

I've known many control room operators and auxiliary operators (who do most of the actual work) and, while most were former Navy, many were not. More than the controlling of a fision reaction is involved...you have to know a lot about what is essentially steam power. Boiler technicians and conventional power plant operators (military or commercial) would be extremely valuable and should be able to cross-train. Highly doable, even in a T2000 era.

On an additional note, I'm pretty sure nuke plants (the ones I have experience with, anyway) rely on outside or emergency power to operate the facility's systems (they can't harness the power they produce.)

I wonder what kind of adventures the plant's security forces have had during the intervening period...they would have been well staffed, well trained and well armed.
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