Potential for Jobs at B&W Boosts Area

On the jobs front, about which so much was written last week, there was welcome news from Babcock and Wilcox. The nuclear power generation firm announced it has signed a lease on a 50,000-square-foot building in the city’s Lynchpin Industrial Center.

The building could house as many as 300 engineers and designers, but only 35 will work there initially. That’s a good beginning. Though the firm will be moving its headquarters to Charlotte in the near future, it will maintain a strong presence in downtown Lynchburg and Central Virginia, where it employs about 2,500 people.

The ready availability of the building is a credit to the city’s economic development office, which helped the firm find the site owned by the Lynchburg Economic Development Authority.

“We needed a facility that could quickly accommodate our expansion and be able to grow into the ultimate needs of the design team,” said Jud Simmons, a spokesman for B&W. “We worked with the city of Lynchburg to find a location that offered the infrastructure, parking and other necessities. Out of everything that we looked at, this was the best overall option.”

Marjette Upshur, the city’s director of economic development, viewed B&W’s decision to remain in the city as evidence the city is doing something right in helping existing businesses expand.

“I think it’s a great vote of confidence for Lynchburg. It still is a great place to work, to attract employees and retain employees,” she said.

The company signed a two-year lease agreement with options to extend the lease until 2019, Upshur said.

Simmons said the firm sought a facility and lease agreement “that would allow for a multi-year design timeline and the continued growth of the engineering and design workforce.” He emphasized that this will be an ongoing effort here.

More than half of the 35 employees who will work in the building formerly occupied by Simplimatic Automation will come from outside Lynchburg. Simmons added that he is not sure of the pace of the expansion, but “we are continuing to aggressively hire employees in this and other nuclear-related areas of our business at a steady rate.”

The expansion also means that B&W remains committed to producing the first nuclear reactor in the United States since the 1970s. The firm is competing with Areva, whose North American headquarters are located here, General Electric and Westinghouse, among others, for that distinction.

The competition to build new nuclear reactors bodes well for alternative sources for the generation of electricity across America. New reliance on nuclear power will ultimately decrease the nation’s dependence on foreign oil as a source of energy.

In June, the company announced it would design the new nuclear reactor, which it says will be less expensive and more quickly built than its competitors’ designs. Its modular design, the firm says, will allow utilities to add electricity generation capacity as needed.

The potential for B&W’s future here is significant, as Upshur pointed out. The city could reap many benefits as the work goes forward and as the reactors are licensed and built. “It could be unbelievable in terms of the types of jobs that will be available there,” she said.

The B&W news comes at a time when the economy is beginning to rebound from depression-era depths. The potential for new jobs can only help in the months ahead.