Radiation Control Technician

[HiRadMissy@aol.com]

I guess I'll kick in my two cents.
   I was a road tech for 14 years.  I started the way many people do, by 
answering an ad in the local paper, getting hired for peanuts, but making due 
because of all the overtime.   I started as a clerk, logging people in and 
out of the RCA, and handing out pocket dosimeters.   And benefitted from lots 
of good OJT. 
    That was in the 80's when you could show up for a refueling, and end up 
staying at the plant for a year and a half.  This happened several times.  
Then the post TMI mods were completed, and competition with fossil fuels 
reared it's ugly head.  The plants started to bring their refuelings in on 
time, and golly if the plants didn't all start shutting down and restarting 
at the same time....Good for commercial nuclear, bad for the rent a tech.   
You can possibly make 15 thousand during a refuel as a SENIOR technician, but 
you will probably only work one that year, if you're lucky two.   
     It's true that Bartlett Nuclear was short more than a thousand techs 
this season.  It's all about money.  Always has been.  I worked for Bartlett 
a couple of years ago.  The pay was LESS than what I received in 1988 at 
Rancho Seco.  During this same job, the guy holding up the sign for people to 
read "stop and go" to enter the reactor building, was getting about 9 bucks 
more an hour.  And gee, he didn't have to sign his name on surveys.  Or cover 
jobs.  Nothing more than know when to flip the sign.  
    I'm truely not bitter, I have had many a good experience on the road, met 
many fine people, and did have a good income for a while.  But really, it's 
not the route to go now.   A better way is to get an education, which will 
last, and hopefully in a field that will satisfy. 
   I figure I have rambled on enough here, (roadies do ramble) but I would 
hate for anyone to be lead on by the lure of  riches that just aren't there.  
OK, more than two cents...
Melissa White
(class of '00)
HiRadMissy@aol.com  
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