What is the difference between a Naval Reactors Engineer and a Submarine/SWO(N) officer?
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navyfamilyof4
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SWO nukes work on a ship. Nuke subs will be on submarines. Nuke reactor engineer works in DC or some where in an office/lab designing subs. NR do not serve on a ship or sub
Naval Reactors - Wikipedia
NR engineers are nuclear engineers in the strictest sense, and will be permanently assigned to Naval Reactors in D.C. They participate in the design, testing, and assessment of nuclear reactors and associated systems.
A major point to consider: NRE is a "dead-end" community. There are no O-4s. There is not much of a career progression to speak of, and it seems the Navy is fine with keeping them for 6-7 years or so and cycling new people through. To continue in the Navy past O-3, you *must* lateral transfer. Ironically, at O-3, it's not viable to transfer to the other nuclear communities due to the lack of operational experience expected at the level of seniority.
You can find a lot more readily available information on Nuke SWO and submarines, so I'll leave those alone.
There's no quotas for NRE from USNA. It's possible to commission NRE in technicality only, and the only ways that I have heard are real wild stories.
A major point to consider: NRE is a "dead-end" community. There are no O-4s. There is not much of a career progression to speak of, and it seems the Navy is fine with keeping them for 6-7 years or so and cycling new people through. To continue in the Navy past O-3, you *must* lateral transfer. Ironically, at O-3, it's not viable to transfer to the other nuclear communities due to the lack of operational experience expected at the level of seniority.
You can find a lot more readily available information on Nuke SWO and submarines, so I'll leave those alone.
There's no quotas for NRE from USNA. It's possible to commission NRE in technicality only, and the only ways that I have heard are real wild stories.
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That is correct, but I think you might have misunderstood the context.
For SWO Nuke and Submarine officers, shore duty at Naval Reactors is a great career booster.
If you pursue NRE, you must understand you will not be making a 20-year military career out of it without changing designators eventually. It is still absolutely possible to lateral transfer to another restricted line or staff corps community and continue to 20.
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Become a Naval Nuclear Reactors Engineer (2023)
Nuclear Reactors Engineers are in charge of developing, studying, maintaining, regulating, and operating, the nuclear reactors and power plants that power the world's most modern fleet of aircraft carriers and submarines.
navalofficerrecruiter.com
This is for SWO-N. Slide 18 gives an idea.
This is for Submarines. Explore various links under "JO Shore." There's a list of billets and billet descriptions, which is the most raw information you can have.
Short answer is there are not that many billets for URL at Naval Reactors. Most of the jobs there are filled by the NREs, and Naval Reactors is why NREs exist.
But you might be interested in exploring the entire sites for both SWO-N and subs to help you determine what you would like to pursue.
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You might need to clarify if you're trying to figure out if you can get shore duty in DC or if you absolutely positively
want to get Shore Duty at NR in DC as the difference is significant.
I meant getting shore duty in NR in DC.
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Then the answer changes over time/rank. Junior officers (LTs) rotating to shore from sea will probably not have an easy time getting into NR
as there are lots of competitors and many will tend to want DC for off duty education opportunities among other considerations. As you become more senior, there might be opportunities but recognize that they might not be the MOST career enhancing compared to some other billets.
USNA_STEM_Prof
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Curious to hear the wild stories. As an OCS recruiter that focused on nuclear power, I put in an NR engineer and it was very straightforward.
MIDN was 4.0 Mechanical Engineer, early selected submarines and apparently crushed the interview so quickly and completely the Admiral redirected their career path on the spot. Woke up that morning expecting to be a submariner, got something completely different instead. A surprise for the nuke officers on the yard, who had never seen that happen for the years they were at USNA.
Out of curiosity, what are some of the most career enhancing billets for SWO(N) officers?
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See the community link below. Explore the embedded links, especially the Community Brief showing the career path slide.
Sustained superior performance in every assignment, especially your warfare specialty, is the key to becoming a pack-plus officer, compared to pack and pack-minus officers as competition increases at every rank. Top-performing officers have the most leverage in being offered the best jobs. If you are an average officer who struggles with the PRT, you won’t be put into a package for flag aide positions, usually considered a choice opportunity. You learn about what’s career-enhancing from senior mentors and your detailer, but you have to be a strong performer to earn those assignments. There are progressively fewer officers, by statutory cap, at each grade level, so competition weeds out non-competitive officers in every round of board promotions.
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For SHORE DUTY, In general, SWO values general OPNAV/DC tours or MILPERSCOM/BUPERS type billets over the broad range of shore duty things like NROTC units, Navy Schools, etc. Graduate Education is also valued and pretty much expected by the Commander level so consider when that gets done. The Nuc spin on that is Advanced Education in ENGINEERING is highly valued. Highly selective and competitive fellowships or other special type education don't really move the needle unless they are technical/Engineering degrees.
USNA_STEM_Prof
USN CDR / USNA PROF 2024 / NROTC 2005 / Prior E
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That happened to one of my peers on Enterprise during his PNEO exam. Very cool for your MIDN.
We've had a couple of mids from my unit go NR while I was there, picked up for straight to NR, not subs or SWO(N) first. They put NR as #1 on their service preferences, had the stats for it, and got it. Then, they had to do the interview in DC after selection.