• Tara Bozick •
• Originally published January 13, 2009 at 6:39 p.m., updated January 13, 2009 at 6:39 p.m.

Educators are working now to secure a local workforce for the nuclear industry.

Exelon would employ up to 700 people with its two proposed nuclear reactors in Victoria County, where the company won't just employ engineers. The plant would need staff at the technician level, like in radiation protection.

"The question is where are they going to come from?" K.L. Peddicord, director of the Nuclear Power Institute at Texas A&M University, asked attendees of the Victoria Partnership meeting on Tuesday morning.

Eight of the 34 reactors announced to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would be in Texas, Peddicord said. Counting the South Texas Project's existing two reactors, Victoria would be within 80 miles of six reactors.

"You all have become the epicenter for new nuclear development with attention coming from all over the world," Peddicord, also agency director for the Texas Engineering Experiment Station, said.

But with the resurgence of nuclear energy comes the challenge of building a workforce.

That could take 10 years, Peddicord said. Two-thirds of that workforce would need a two-year degree with later additional training by the nuclear company.

So, Victoria College and Wharton County Junior College partnered with industry and other educators in the Nuclear Power Institute to form the curriculum and programs needed to prepare students for the nuclear field.

The partnership started with a two-year, $2 million grant from the Texas Workforce Commission, Peddicord said. Matagorda County, which has two reactors in operation, served as the test bed for the program, he said.

Now, educators will take the lessons learned to colleges around nuclear energy sites, Peddicord said.

Victoria College already offers a process technology program, so a nuclear focus would just add three more courses on top of that degree, Tom Butler, college president, said. That degree path would lead to starting salaries in the $60,000 range, he added.

"I think in terms of nuclear power industries, this puts us on the map," Butler said.

Exelon will support any endeavor to bring more young people to the industry, Bill Harris, community outreach manager, said. The company has watched STP's pilot program with great interest and would fund a scholarship program in the future.

"We'll soon be on the bandwagon," Harris said.

Memorial High School senior Lainy Dromgoole came to the meeting to see what options she may have in the nuclear field. The 17-year-old visited the A&M campus and its training reactors last summer and is considering attending the school if she becomes a radiological health major.

Her dad Tim Dromgoole, a process technician at a chemical plant, said the nuclear industry will become a major field to find skilled jobs.

"I think it's a good opportunity Victoria should probably take advantage of," Lainy added.

But not everyone thinks it a good idea to build a nuclear plant in Victoria County. Texans for a Sound Energy Policy Alliance has opposed Exelon's proposed site and would rather nuclear reactors exist on the Gulf Coast.

"Education in my mind is good for everyone and the economy, just the issue in Victoria County is there is not enough water for a nuclear facility," John Figer, executive director of the Alliance, said.

• For more information, visit www.nuclearpowerinstitute.org.

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