Economic impact: nuclear packs $2.3 billion punch.

The economic clout generated by the Carolinas' nuclear power business produces more than $2.3 billion in wages, provides 37,000 jobs and pours $750 million into state and local government coffers.

"Our nuclear cluster is both an important source of energy to residents and businesses, as well as a major player in Carolinas' job and income creation," said Clemson University's Mark Henry, author of the study published by the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness.

The report, "The Economic Impact of the Nuclear Cluster in the Carolinas," showed that in the nuclear energy industry in North Carolina and South Carolina the benefits come from private sector firms and public sector participation.

Four utilities--Duke Energy, Progress Energy, South Carolina Electric and Gas and Santee Cooper--own seven commercial reactor units in the Carolinas. (SCE&G and Santee Cooper are partners in the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station at Jenkinsville, S.C.)

The facilities are supported by major firms in the nuclear supply chain, including engineering and construction services such as AREVA NP, the Shaw Group, Fluor and URS; manufacturers GE Hitachi, Westing-house and Siemens; an assortment of firms that make valves, motors, and pumps; maintenance companies; and service (inns such as security companies and laboratories.

In addition, major public-sector ventures in the Carolinas nuclear cluster are at the Savannah River and Barnwell sites. Both include private-sector participation. Barnwell hosts a low-level radioactive waste disposal site operated by Chem-Nuclear under a South Carolina state license.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site is a major source of defense-related and commercial nuclear activities, including the processing of nuclear waste into fuel for commercial reactors. The site also houses the Savannah River National Laboratory.

The three utilities in the region are planning to build as many as eight new nuclear reactors on existing and new sites.

SCE&G and Santee Cooper have begun work on two 1,110-megawatt reactor units at the V.C. Summer plant in Jenkinsville, S.C.

Just building a reactor unit generates an economic punch. For example, the projected cost of the SCE&G and Santee Cooper project, scheduled to be completed in 2019, is $9.8 billion, and much of that...

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