Dave, Best wishes to your boy. I, too, enlisted (a long time ago) and was qualified for Nuke Power program. Went to Great Lakes for boot camp, which was great as it was only 30 minutes from home. Not that I could go there for 16 weeks. But, it was nice when I also went to my ET A school there. Then, went to Mare Island, CA, for the class part of Nuke training, which is only about 2 hours drive from the Sierra Nevadas. For the training on an actual Nuke plant, I went to what was then called NRTS, I think, outside of Idaho Falls. It's now called INL. Even though we were on rotating shifts through the pre-qualification portion, there were still long weekends with many outdoors opportunities - Yellowstone Park about 4 hours away, the Snake river just a stone's throw away, the Henry's Fork, Grand Teton Nat'l Park, and plenty of other outdoor activities.
I really liked my time there. In fact about 10 years ago, my company in Chicago opened a branch office in Boise and asked if anyone wanted to transfer (moving paid for, etc). My wife and I jumped at the chance and we love it.
If your son keeps up the good work, he should have his pick of duty stations. If he loves the outdoors he could do a lot worse. Oh, yeah, the Navy wasn't too bad either.
Mike
ET1, USS South Carolina - CGN37