The South Texas facility began commercial operations in 1988, operates 365 days a year and is the largest employer in Matagorda County. The plant is managed by the STP Nuclear Operating Company and employs approximately 1,300 full-time personnel, including contractors, nationwide.

With construction of STP 3&4, the surrounding community is expected to see a notable increase in construction jobs over a period of several years and training and educational opportunities, permanent jobs and economic growth to Matagorda County and the state of Texas over the life of the facility. These jobs span multiple skill sets including construction, manufacturing, operations and engineering.

Even at this early stage of project development, the STP 3&4 expansion has created more than 600 jobs by the end of 2008 and will have created close to 1,000 by the end of 2009. In 2008, Toshiba Corporation opened an office in Alexandria, Virginia and hired 150 people in order to support NINA’s projects. Fluor Corp. has close to 200 employees in Greenville, South Carolina supporting STP 3&4 development efforts and plans to add more than 100 jobs in 2009. In addition, Sargent & Lundy LLC will likely require almost 100 workers in Illinois on top of the 170 presently working on the STP 3&4 project.

As the project moves into the construction phase, it is estimated that the peak labor force for the project will approach 7,000 jobs throughout the United States with 5,500 people employed at the STP 3&4 site in Texas. This does not include the potential creation of 1,000 jobs across over more than 1,000 suppliers^*.

In 2009 alone, the project expects to engage up to 100 U.S.-based suppliers and release contracts totaling close to $450 million to these suppliers and manufacturers. In total, NINA expects to spend nearly $3.5 billion on materials and equipment for STP 3&4 expansion.

Based on the January 2010 Texas and Matagorda County Economic Impact study prepared for NINA by The Perryman Group, the new nuclear units are expected to create more than $15 billion of economic activity for the state and result in more than 8,000 new permanent jobs statewide.

^* American Nuclear Association, CAS Energy Coalition