YesVirginia Business Blog

Check out Virginia Business Magazine’s latest issue for a comprehensive article about Virginia’s nuclear industry.

It makes for a good read. The article underscores Virginia’s efforts to maintain a strong base of power generation from various traditional sources, while a variety of renewable resources and their associated technologies take on a larger share of the power-generation picture.

There’s no doubt the Commonwealth views nuclear as a key pillar of our unique generation and power reliability story. The power of the future belongs to Virginia. Home to three of the top global players in the energy sector (AREVA NP, Babcock & Wilcox and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding) and a plethora of national players, Virginia’s cluster of technology, workforce and corporate businesses positions the Commonwealth as a leader in clean energy and advanced manufacturing of components for the energy sector. The vertical integration of Virginia’s assets—from workforce to real estate to research & development, to regulatory climate and proximity to market—means that energy-related companies can grow in a business climate that is prepared to sustain their competitiveness for the long term.

The article highlights the groundbreaking of the new AREVA Newport News project, a joint venture with Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding to manufacture equipment and pressure vessels for the nuclear industry. Governor Kaine will join AREVA and Northrop Grumman officials later this month for the groundbreaking ceremony in Newport News. Also discussed are several industry firsts that are happening right here in the Commonwealth: Babcock & Wilcox’s plans to develop a scalable, modular game-changing nuclear reactor, Dominion Virginia Power’s plans to build one of the first new nuclear reactors in the U.S. in three decades, and Virginia Commonwealth University is the first state university to add a nuclear engineering track to its masters engineering degree program.

The Commonwealth’s energy sector already employs more than 31,000 people, and Virginia ranks second in the number of nuclear engineers. We see both of those figures growing by leaps and bounds in the coming years, thanks to programs such as PRODUCED in Virginia (Providing Undergraduate Connections to Engineering Education in Virginia) and important strategic investments like that of the Virginia Tobacco Commission toward R&D facilities and research contracts, mainly around energy.

With help from a state interagency energy task force, VEDP is actively seeking project opportunities across the full spectrum of traditional and alternative energy resources. For more information about operating your energy facility in Virginia, visit us at www.YesVirginia.org or contact Mike Carruth at mcarruth@yesvirginia.org.