mechanical engineer

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nuclear engineer

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Naval Nuclear Laboratory

Worked at the Idaho Facility while under the management of Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corp.

The rate of attrition at the facility on the engineering side of the house is poor.  The company likes to hire young people right out of college (absolutely nothing wrong with that), but is not willing make it worth their time to stay.   I’d say work- life-balance is one of the biggest factors for most people.  Most engineers work a 9-80 schedule (80 hours over a 2 week period with 9 working days); the commute to and from the site from Idaho Falls, Pocatello, or other major living areas is on average about  1.1 hours  from the bus pickup to the facility (each way).  A typical work day will have you away from home 12+ hours.  
 Need to head to town for a quick dental appointment or to attend to your children?  Forget about it.   Plan on burning up 1/2 day or full day of Medical time, since it’s not worth your time nor financial resources to drive back and forth.  

Poor employee management and poor historical management of facility systems  are the most difficult aspects of the job.  Some of the buildings have been  around for 60 years, and have poorly managed and maintained for atleast 20 years.  Its actually really difficult to assess the actual history of the site as most work at the facility been poorly documented, archived and/or retained making information difficult or impossible to retrieve in any reliable manner.  Couple this with the high rate of attrition, and you have a recipe for disaster.  More times that not, managment’s answer to finding information  regarding old system history is to talk to the “old timers”.  While the relatively few super experienced workers are indeed excellent assets, the company is failing to retain future long term employees, and the experienced guys are retiring and leaving too.  Meanwhile,  management continues to  place their head back in the sand instead of developing a comprehensive and effective campaign towards salvaging and improving system histories. 

This is a nuclear facility.  Documentation and history is IMPERATIVE.  The  problem with poorly documented history permeates all aspects of maintainenance and engineering at the facility; it results in constant work stoppages due to unknown underground utilities being disturbed,  it results in inffective and redundant processes being  pushed by management.  It also leads to (often unaddressed) worker safety issues, and potential injuries.  

Real and pressing safety and  infrastructure issues exist all over the site, including undocumented and unmaintained electrical equipment, poorly documented cross contamination between various utility systems, poor information regarding locations and concentrations of health hazardous materials, asbestos, and radiological contamination.  (Harken back to my comment regarding poorly managed system history,  Many systems have already been sampled, the program subsequently failed to manage the data properly, making it unreliable/un-searchable. 

An uninitiated reader on this site might not understand the significance of sample data and  system history.  IF YOU WORK AT ONE OF THE NNL FACILITIES, THIS IS THE NAME OF THE GAME.  Everything hinges on this information.  


Here’s a little explanation of the day-to-day

To a newly hired employee, a job with the NNL might sound pretty fascinsting, and might even carry some mystique, since you’ll have to obtainto have a security clearance.   In reality, as an engineer most of your time will be spent pushing paperwork; filling out hazard evaluations,  completing safety checklists, filling out excavation requests, drafting radiological evaluations, etc 

You won’t use 95% of the information you learned in college.  You’ll be lucky.......LUCKY!.... to use any engineering related academic discipline more advanced than simple algebra.   Working out at the Idaho facility will slowly sap every ounce of latent academic engineering knowledge that you had collected throughout your schooling from your beautiful brain. It will slowly drain out of your body as you sit your days away staring at the computer in with dirty cubical that was passed down to you from last year’s system engineer.  Feel your lifelong engineering career hopes shrivel, as you re-reformat (redundancy intentional) your work package to match this months suggested work package template.  You will be relegated to performing this process day-in-day-out;  perhaps because the name of last year’s system engineer is still on the form, or  perhaps it’s because your work package sat in the work group’s queue so long that it doesn’t include the the newly required permit form (it wasn’t required two months ago when you submitted your work package).  Hear your engineering spirit breathe its last gasps as you listen to this quarter’s subdivision manager parrot upper managments’ justifications on why  it’s ok for your system’s maintenance  has fallen further and further behind in the name of this week’s self imposed and ineffective work stoppages.  

Once you become blind and impartial to the incredible amount of time and employee resources wasted by The Program and its prime contractors, you might actually be able to find some humor in the asinity of the environment you work in.  Here’s a theoretical example:  when the interior and exterior walls of one of the facility’s many decrepit structures  can’t be re-painted due to legacy radiological contamination in the paint  (self-imposed regulation stranglehold), EVENTUALLY  the existing paint will  fail to adhere.  If you’re lucky, the chips fell off on the inside of the building.  If they feel outside...... well then you might find your planned maintenance job (and every other planned job within Facilities) put on the back burner so that every free laborer can support the hazardous waste cleanup crew employees, who at some point are going to be crawling around on their hands and knees while sifting through gravel and grass to retrieve loose paint chips by hand (DON’T YOU DARE EVEN ASK about using a vacuum) .  In the following week’s management meeting you might have the good fortune of listening to the management team do their best job of spinning the situation to explain how the company goes above and beyond to act as good stewards of the environment; Forget about the wasted resources, and the underlying causation of the problems, like rain water coming through the roof of  the buildings.


While real and pressing issues regarding long term  system equipment operability and  employee safety are constantly being voiced by a select few engineers,  the facility safety and ESH  managers will be turning a blind eye; they will instead be poking their noses around inside the refrigerators to identify expired lunch meats (employee provided) and issuing citations.  


The status quo of the facilities and maintenance side of the site is reactionary crisis management.  I’m actually convinced that the prime contractor is dis-incentivized from actually completely and permanently correcting some of the issues that continually plague the site.

If you, the reader, decides to take a job here, I sincerely hope that you are able to take a deep and sober look at the way the place operates. It is both infuriating and frightening.

Multiple reviewers have commented about individuals in management typically ‘failing up’ into their positions;  it’s true,  poorly performing management here typically moves up or laterally into new positions.  Many of the individuals in upper management are also retired Navy/military;  the influence permeates the management chain.  

Management uses an employee assessment (rating) system which, although it is supposed to be unbiased, really mounts to a popularity contest.  You’ll continually find that many of the employees who stay late (who also come in late), and fraternize with the managers after hours in lieu of actually completing work,  will consistently be the ones to score high appraisal ratings.  It makes it difficult to stomach when you see the individuals who are actually contributing to progress get under rated. 

Management tries its best to shun discussion of individual employee compensation, since the guys who have worked here for 10 years are at the same pay as the college new hire who started last week.   Corporate and upper management don't truly care about the satisfaction nor longevity of its employees.  The proof is in the rate of attrition.

NNL West Mifflin (referred to herein as Bettis, because the stuffy NNL title is only a results of recent corporate/government shenanigans) is simply "A Place to Work". When I left, they started a hiring campaign with the slogan "A Great Place to Work", which was a direct copy from a Denny's hiring campaign, but internally everyone agreed through several company intranet pages that #APlaceToWork was more appropriate.
I would say that is a fair statement. Others may say different, but my experience at Bettis was overall moderate. I would not recommend this job to everyone because the stuffy life of "verbatim compliance" is not for everyone, but if you can take that and put up with knee jerk reactions to ridiculous report-able events, then Bettis might be okay for you. Ask about what you're supposed to do if you see a yellow colored Easter egg in a bush...that's my favorite.
Work/life balance was fine, benefits were exceptional, the time off they give you is hard to beat, and you can go out to lunch everyday for an hour and no one will care (except maybe the secret time card police). Honestly, no complaints there.
Morale has declined significantly in recent years because of overdue promotions, high turnover rates in select groups (my group specifically), and unanswered concerns about compensation. For an entry-level engineer position, I feel that the pay is fair when comparing nationwide, but there were several voiced concerns that it is under for the Pittsburgh area; Bettis NEVER addressed any of those concerns.
This next part is not an understatement: this is a VERY secure job. Since they request government funds 7 years in advance...you know you'll have a job. As long as you don't falsify documentation or violate security measures, it's a challenge to get fired. The entire time I worked there, those were the only two reasons I heard for people getting fired. In terms of advancement...(sigh) I would admit the opportunity is there, but my thoughts on that later.
Management is just that...management. They manage the work...it gets done...but don't expect anything else. They only hire "yes" men/women as managers, and they don't care about fixing a broken promotion system. Most of the managers were okay at dividing the work...I can't say the same for mine...
My personal story: if you're a naive go-getter (like I used to be) and your boss is afraid to assign work to the vast array of new individuals in the group, then chances are you will be taken advantage of. Bettis ruined my opinion of government employment and since I have become very aware of corporate oppression. By my 3rd year, I was finally accepted a long awaited unofficial lead role...the next month I was FORCED into a 2nd official lead role due to turnover and was not allowed to relinquish my other responsibilities. By my boss's definition, I was fulfilling the duties of 3 full time engineers in my group. Despite this, these changes did not come with a pay increase (NEVER expect that) and I was overdue for regularly scheduled promotion...my boss had to sit me down and apologize for that more than once, but he wasn't willing to push harder for it. Instead, I had to attend a mandatory "Q and A" session with the Department Manager where he lied to a group of ~30 people saying that the same exact position I was FORCED into deserved an instant promotion 3 levels above my pay scale! It was such a sham, that I refused to accept the official title of the lead position I was forced into until the week of my announced resignation, HA!...but I digress; too many capital letters in one paragraph.
Aside from my personal experience and the declining morale, the job culture was good; anywhere you work, people will want to point blame, but at Bettis most people weren't afraid to own up to it. It was very much a healthy team atmosphere and those who can't see it don't appreciate it. I made a lot of friends there, and I miss the people I worked with very much.
In conclusion, Bettis is very much the model example of "A Place to Work"...if you're thinking of leaving Bettis, the next place you go might not be a "greener pasture".

If all you care about is having a job then it's not horrible however... if you would like  a consistent schedule, quality work life balance, work in an updated facility or have managers that know how to do there job then this is not the place for you
    To start one week your happily working 3 12 hour days and then get told that in a week we're switching you to working 6 days a week and lie about the reasoning for over a year only to finally get them to admit they put money first over employees.
   If your looking for an updated place to work keep in mind this site was built back in the 50s and we just slap new paint on buildings and say it was remodeled and for technology it's out dated the computers and internet suck so you can't get anything done and hopefully you remember to save often because they will randomly shutdown to reboot wouldn't be a problem if you could use modern software that saved as you typed or worked on documents but anything new or that makes sense is forbidden. Oh and if your someone who likes to have their phone on them incase of family emergencies etc well you can forget about having it because it's not allowed on site and if you do accidentally bring it onsite because you forgot it was in your bag or pocket good luck could be anything from a slap on the wrist to have a nice day go find another job
    And lastly if you would like to have quality management this 100% is not the place to work the saying on site is f*** up move up and in th past 6 years of working their it's 100% true if a manager can't do his job correctly instead of firing them they find them another manager spot on site which often leads to higher positions and more pay for not being able to do their job and the culture for management and supervision on site is beyond toxic they constantly will twist things to put all the blame on the work group so they don't have to admit they were wrong and let's say you bring up an idea on how to fix the groups morale and overall well being you'll be told " that's a great idea but we're just not going to do it" and if you try to help cover open spots on the schedule you will be told your not needed due to them not wanting to pay for it now keep in mind as a firefighter/emt if we're leaving shifts open and we're not properly staffed (currently have less than half our requirement) than we are putting the rest of the site population in an elevated risk for harm because it's not like an outside job where you can rely on your local fire department to show up in time because we add an additional 10 minutes to outside responses do to security check points which is why we are supposed to have a properly staffed fire department on site. Also you will constantly be told that you suck at your job even if you weren't part of it because if someone on site screws up instead yelling at that one individual the entire workforce has to get yelled at and told how poorly we do our jobs and that we don't know anything to prevent someone from feeling singled out so we completely removed the personal accountability for your actions which promotes laziness and poor work ethics

This is probably one of the worst ran companies of this size and scope I have ever experienced or likely ever will, considering how poor the middle management is in terms of meaningful leadership, support and an overall lack of ability to communicate and provide positive guidance to its staff and departments, is it is no surprise after my experience and time here that the Great Power Competition is being lost decisively with foreign military nation-states. I would not recommend any one to join this company. I was never informed nor warned by their HR Dept of any probationary period of employment and these questions were asked directly. This company has a very unusual and high turnover ration of anywhere between 10-20% of its staff including terminations, retirements and people leaving because they are simply quite unhappy with their job roles etc. The work place culture is rife with lethargic, uninspired and complacent workers. You will find this throughout the organization and there seems to be a veneer of sorts and a prevalent yet tacit fear of job retaliation. I would soon come to fully realize this but for me this was just too late. I say this because of the lack of openness I found throughout, many folks were unwilling or felt unease to speak plainly and transparently about the many observations I had over an extended period of time working here and attempted to get an understanding of. I found myself in a place where I reached out for support from management as well as their HR and nothing was done to address my real job concerns at any point in time other than phrases like "it has gotten better" and "try to stick it out" etc.. The absolute sad part of all this is that there are some great folks that want significant positive changes to occur internally and unfortunately that is not happening nor likely to happen in a very long period of time. The best part is simple, the salary they give you to lore you in but you will come to regret joining this organization so heed my warning and stay away. I wish I had

NNL provides some of the best job security you'll find anywhere, provided that you don't make any security infractions. Keep your clearance, and you'll keep your job. During COVID, plenty of other sectors went down but the work at NNL kept going strong.

Unfortunately, there is a huge disparity between the pay of NNL engineers and engineers in the private sector. Taking a market average of pay will always lag behind the competition and does not take into account cost of living (especially for you Knolls/Kesselring engineers, ouch). The work can either be really engaging or the epitome of 'Office Space' style paper pushing, which can be really offsetting to new engineers hopeful to work for the 'World's Greatest Navy'. It all depends on what position you're in - both of mine were less than adequate. As a qualification engineer, you will be overworked and underpaid while the quality of your work takes second to getting the work done. You will be a second-rate project manager as you micromanage your individual hours to track tasks that ultimately just end up hindering any effort/time you spend to get work done. It is god awful. As a PPE engineer, you are a glorified technical editor and every step you take is criticized with the utmost scrutiny by just about everyone. Nothing gets done quickly - be prepared for a long and arduous battle to push out your finest letter to NR. If having your main deliverable as writing letters isn't riveting to your career goals, then do NOT apply to be an NNL engineer. The progression is god awful too. No one wants to work for 10+ years just to reach the same pay as your competition had reached within maybe 5-6 years. If you're hiring 'the best and brightest' minds in NNL, then why don't they get paid like they're the best?

The day started at 6:45 am (5 am if you rode the company provided bus), work stopped around 3 or 3:30 and everyone left at 4:10 (never earlier) to get on the bus.  They would revise the promotion criteria, evaluate compensation against industry standards, and do constant surveys to identify areas to improve.  A guy who had worked there 25 years told me they would do these initiatives every 5 years and the result would be a new name for the company (pay lagged, promotions were non-existent except the 5-10% identified as high potentials, and they would brag about any improvements on their surveys).  Managers had one pot of money for promotions and raises, they couldn't give you a promotion until your pay was within a certain percentage of the next level and at 2-3% it often took people 10 years to be eligible.  Work force is divided into four groups, those in the pension program, ex-navy nuclear, people who worked as navy nuclear trainers or shift fueling engineers who after finishing their 5 year contracts were moved into management, and everyone one else most who left within 5 years of starting.  High turnover, excessive red tape, incompetent management (both navy and NNL), low pay, little or no recognition of effort/results in annual raises.
Some sites actually did some cutting edge work.  The majority of technical positions did not have access to recent technology.  All the engineers I worked with spent 75% of their time on paperwork, 15% in meetings, and maybe 10% of their time on actual engineering.

This may be one of the worst sites that I have worked at with the federal government. I have worked at many. 

Training opportunities are VERY limited. I have never worked anywhere where they don't want you to actively to learn new things.  

The culture is very stifling, and if you are not  in the boys club, they will talk down to you . It's a conservative old school gov vibe. 

There are two divisions. Contractors vs sub contractors. I have never worked at a place where contractors were called " employees" and sub contractors just do the things  contractors don't want to do . If you come in as a subcontractor, BE AWARE that you will be treated like a second class citizen. They will talk down to you, won't invite you meetings/events, won't get the infromation you need to do the job and then get written up,  and most likely you  will sit in the surplus area of the building which is usually loud, in a hallway, with terrible air flow. You may think that's fine, and you just want a job, but it WILL take a toll on your mental health. 

BEWARE!!! Especially if you are under the age of 40. You will HATE it. 

I have never felt so disrespected than I have working at this place. 

A benefit is that I have a lot of good material to create a psychological horror movie, and it will be based on the feeling I have working on this worksite.



The company has a bunch of interesting work that can be challenging and rewarding. Most engineers perform analyses at computers, and some get to work in labs as test sponsors. You can gain a lot of experience with finite element analyses and technical writing. Depending on the group you work in there is a potential to do some design work, but much of the design is in test fixtures, tooling, and hardware.

It is nice to have a big site that includes office buildings, labs, and machine shops. The feel of being on a campus is enjoyable.

Requirements can be really tight on designs and analytical limits which can make work difficult at times, but that is part of the challenge. There is currently a lack of innovative culture there, but hopefully there will be a move to more new design and testing. Management can differ greatly based on the size of the site, and I was lucky to have management that supported my technical work and defended my decisions. 

The greatest part is the work/life balance. Most engineers work on a 9/80 schedule and do not have to work extensively past their normal 9 hour days. The fact that we have lives outside of work that are important and make us who we are is respected, and we are not overworked with absurd hours most weeks throughout the year. This has greatly allowed me to do interesting things outside of work and not constantly feel under pressure of the job.

Due to my broad research experience and education, I was involved in various projects and subjects, which I really enjoyed very much. At knolls new ideas and technical discussions welcomed and considered seriously. We worked all together as a team to accomplish the projects. All the works must be in detail, accurate, and tested precisely before being applied. Often theoretical modeling was performed in parallel with experiments to validate the experimental results. Each team as well as each individual has responsibility to perform the job as accurate as possible.  During the development of new ideas and technologies we also worked with several research institutes and vendors.  I learned how to communicate with vendors, give and take ideas, and work as a team. I learned the best way to overcome the issues is to discuss face to face. Regarding the management, it mostly depends on the manager personality.  Overall, most of the managers are open and give scientists and engineers space to work with each other and then being briefed.  Overall the environment is suitable to learn and contribute to the programs.

Due to my broad research experience and education, I was involved on variety of projects, which I enjoyed very much.  New ideas and technical discussions welcomed and considered seriously.  Many advanced equipment available for detail research and development.  Due to sensitivity of the works, each work evaluated in detail and tested precisely to be sure everything is correct.  Many research institutes and vendors were involved on the development of new ideas.  I learned how to collaborate with vendors, give and take new ideas, and communicate with them.  I learned the best way that a project advances and new ideas incorporated  is to have open discussion face to face.  Regarding the management, it depends on the personality of the managers.  Many managers were very opened and leaved the science to scientists and engineers and give them space to work and debrief them on the progresses that was made.  Overall, the goal was that we all work together as a team, help each other, and do our job to the best of our ability to complete projects.

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