Pros
Salary was decent for my area. 3-day weekends were nice when we weren't working an outage. Bonus structure is good. If you work hard, they usually take care of you and usually give you some opportunities.
Cons
Working outages are high-pressure and all consuming. Forget any work/life balance during a refueling outage. It's no wonder the people married to their careers at Entergy nuclear have a high divorce rate because anyone who decides they want to move vertically will have to concede some part of their home life. There isn't the flexibility of a normal company when you work nuclear. Now, I can go to kids' ball games, practices, drop off and pick up from school, home every night, run errands around town, have lunch with my wife, etc. When you work there, most of that stuff isn't an option. On-call schedule stinks. You can't leave town and you can't have a drink (if that's your thing) for a week at a time. You're subject to call-ins at anytime... middle of the night, weekend, etc. Pay hasn't kept up with the rest of the world. Years ago, nuclear was the place to be because it paid so much more. The rest of the world has outpaced nuclear and most folks that leave there get a pay raise or equivalent pay. Benefits aren't really any better there except for "paternity leave".
