Supply chain: vendor numbers up in the Carolinas.

Sonaspection International is the quintessential niche manufacturer. The company produces flawed specimens--materials such as pipes that have defects purposely built in to help train welders and other technicians to spot problems in real components. "This is the part we play in the industry," says Roy Duce. U.S. operations manager for Sonaspection, which has offices in Concord, N.C., and Lancaster, England.

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The Concord office opened in 2002 specifically to work with Electric Power Research Institute, known as EPRI, a research and development company that consults with the nuclear industry, among others. EPRI has several offices across the country, including one in Charlotte. The supply chain link with EPRI was forged, Duce says, "because we set up a product that wasn't immediately available in the industry."

Sonaspection's work in the nuclear industry accounts for about 60% of the company's revenue--a case study of the opportunities to be had for companies of all sizes in the Carolinas. Its link to EPRI and EPRI's to the nuclear industry is but a sliver in a big pie. A 2009 study by Clemson University on the economic impact of the nuclear clusters in the Carolinas says purchases from nonfuel vendors, which include a range of products and services, add up to more than $1 billion annually.

South Carolina's slice of the pie was about $192 million; North Carolina's was about $109 million, leaving $760 million in the hands of vendors from outside the area. "And that's only looking at those companies that are supporting currently operating facilities," says Ernie Chaput, who works with the Economic Development Partnership of Aiken and Edgetield Counties and has been working with the Carolinas Nuclear Cluster on...