Nuclear jobs welcomed to North Carolina
Toshiba is to set up a nuclear engineering centre in the US state of North Carolina, which has acted to support the creation of highly-paid nuclear jobs.
Toshiba is to set up a nuclear engineering centre in the US state of North Carolina, which has acted to support the creation of highly-paid nuclear jobs.
The Japanese company already has heavy involvement in the US nuclear industry through its Westinghouse reactor and fuel subsidiary and its marketing of the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR), which it carries out through the Washington DC-based Toshiba America Nuclear Energy corporation (TANE).
The new engineering centre in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina is meant to support the construction of the ABWR "as well as supply steam turbines and other major equipment" for Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized water reactors.
Setting up the centre will create 198 jobs, said North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue, with her office explaining that the state's Economic Investment Committee had voted to award a Job Development Investment Grant to TANE. Perdue's statement said the average annual wage for a job created at the TANE centre would be $122,037 excluding benefits - well over double the county average of $49,400.
If TANE reaches performance targets set by the state, the company will recieve a grant of 60% of the state personal income after tax from the new jobs. Perdue said the benefit to TANE could reach $4.9 million if the jobs are sustained for nine years, while $1.62 million would be redirected to less prosperous counties. This kind of grant is available only to new or expanding businesses whose benefits exceed the costs to the state and which would go elsewhere without the grant.
Toshiba is in the frame to build two ABWRs at the South Texas Project site. Meanwhile 12 of Westinghouse's AP1000 pressurized water reactors are being planned in the USA.
