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I’m an ex navy nuke (I did the whole thing, school through startups, sea trials, refuel, operations, maintenance, was nuke mechanic). I think some of the main i

I’m an ex navy nuke (I did the whole thing, school through startups, sea trials, refuel, operations, maintenance, was nuke mechanic). I think some of the main impediments to adoption of navy-style training, operations, and maintenance in the civilian world are that the work is challenging and high stress. The school is very mentally and spiritually challenging to most people. When you get to the fleet the work is very challenging both mentally and physically. You are taking weekly technical short answer tests, operating the thing in 100F degrees doing legit physical work, responding to emergency stuff at 2 am before a 6 am shift. It’s nuts. The navy selects smart people through asvab test requirements. Most students are still challenged by the coursework. When you stay in by reenlisting it gets a little easier because you have less physical work to do but you still have to maintain excellence and train the junior people to the required competency level. Combine this with the fact that the pay is shitty compared to other jobs in industry available and the incentives just aren’t there. Where do we find these highly motivated, fit, young, intelligent people to work like dogs? They don’t exist in sufficient quantity to do this. The navy doesn’t have superior technology; most of the ships are old and maintained. The secret sauce is the personnel and their desperation. You aren’t going to contract people in the civillian world to do this stuff. I really don’t think it’s feasible.

dqpb 4y ago
> Combine this with the fact that the pay is shitty compared to other jobs in industry available and the incentives just aren’t there. > Where do we find these highly motivated, fit, young, intelligent people to work like dogs? We increase the pay. It's that simple.
- nradov 4y ago
  Thus killing the economics of nuclear power relative to competing sources. The Navy uses nuclear power on a few dozen carriers and submarines because that's the only practical way to accomplish the mission. But after building a handful of nuclear powered surface combatants they abandoned that approach, and returned to conventional engines largely for cost reasons. Civilian power plants have to find a way to operate at a profit.
landemva 4y ago
Personnel are a key ingredient for success. In civilian world for construction the regulatory environment is wildly different. Calls for Navy to run civilian nukes would likely not work with the civilian regulator.
lifeisstillgood 4y ago
I get the "nuclear maintenance school is mentally challenging" ... but I am fascinated by spirtually challenging - could you elaborate?
- dickholesalad 4y ago
  I can only speak for myself, although I would say I was pretty average as far as people who finished the school. My class had a fifty percent drop rate. Two people killed themselves that year. My good friend was the “petty officer of the watch” and found one of the people that jumped off of their second story common area balcony head first. The housing areas were named after ships so we made gallows humor jokes about them being in the xx diving squad. The school had zero cheating, a very fast pace, and very specific grading requirements. This led to a grade meritocracy that seemed gaussian in nature, distributed around a very specific skill set centered around quickly testing. Some people easily skated by. Others struggled. Some from both groups failed out. I think that seeing people be put into a meat grinder like that was more than I was prepared for. I believed in some kind of justice in the world, or at least in the man-made systems we created but didn’t encounter that. There is also the chance that everyone goes through experiences that change their outlook on life, but that was my lived experience. If you are interested there is a book that was passed around that tells it better: https://www.swm1.com/life%20in%20the%20nuclear%20navy.pdf https://www.swm1.com/life%20in%20the%20nuclear%20navy.pdf I didn’t write it but it was pretty accurate and really funny IIRC.

dqpb 4y ago

> Combine this with the fact that the pay is shitty compared to other jobs in industry available and the incentives just aren’t there. > Where do we find these highly motivated, fit, young, intelligent people to work like dogs? We increase the pay. It's that simple.

nradov 4y ago
Thus killing the economics of nuclear power relative to competing sources. The Navy uses nuclear power on a few dozen carriers and submarines because that's the only practical way to accomplish the mission. But after building a handful of nuclear powered surface combatants they abandoned that approach, and returned to conventional engines largely for cost reasons. Civilian power plants have to find a way to operate at a profit.

landemva 4y ago

Personnel are a key ingredient for success. In civilian world for construction the regulatory environment is wildly different. Calls for Navy to run civilian nukes would likely not work with the civilian regulator.

lifeisstillgood 4y ago

I get the "nuclear maintenance school is mentally challenging" ... but I am fascinated by spirtually challenging - could you elaborate?

dickholesalad 4y ago
I can only speak for myself, although I would say I was pretty average as far as people who finished the school. My class had a fifty percent drop rate. Two people killed themselves that year. My good friend was the “petty officer of the watch” and found one of the people that jumped off of their second story common area balcony head first. The housing areas were named after ships so we made gallows humor jokes about them being in the xx diving squad. The school had zero cheating, a very fast pace, and very specific grading requirements. This led to a grade meritocracy that seemed gaussian in nature, distributed around a very specific skill set centered around quickly testing. Some people easily skated by. Others struggled. Some from both groups failed out. I think that seeing people be put into a meat grinder like that was more than I was prepared for. I believed in some kind of justice in the world, or at least in the man-made systems we created but didn’t encounter that. There is also the chance that everyone goes through experiences that change their outlook on life, but that was my lived experience. If you are interested there is a book that was passed around that tells it better: https://www.swm1.com/life%20in%20the%20nuclear%20navy.pdf https://www.swm1.com/life%20in%20the%20nuclear%20navy.pdf I didn’t write it but it was pretty accurate and really funny IIRC.