Westinghouse Electric Company and the University of South Carolina have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a multidisciplinary nuclear workforce development program. The signing ceremony took place at the Columbia Life Arena in Columbia, during the Third Annual South Carolina Nuclear Summit, in the presence of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy James P. Danly and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Alex Fitzsimmons.
The program will be housed at the Nuclear Innovation Center, a new facility planned by the university’s Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing. Its stated goal is to train the technicians and engineers needed for the large-scale deployment of AP1000 reactors across the United States. Hossein Haj-Hariri, dean of the Molinaroli College, told reporters at the summit that the facility will be one of a kind: anyone looking to build or operate these reactors will need to come through it. An ambitious statement — and a methodical one.
The agreement does not yet include a direct financial commitment from Westinghouse, but it formally opens the dialogue between the two institutions to define the center’s curriculum and operational structure. The partnership fits into a broader context: Westinghouse’s parent company, Brookfield Asset Management, is working to resume construction on two partially built reactors in South Carolina, as part of a $2.7 billion negotiation with state utility Santee Cooper for the V.C. Summer site.
Westinghouse has been present in South Carolina for more than fifty years, employing over 2,200 people in the state, including staff at the Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility — one of the largest nuclear fuel manufacturing plants in the world. The Nuclear Innovation Center aims to complete this industrial ecosystem with a structured educational component, capable of producing graduates ready to step directly into construction sites and control rooms of new plants. The university has already launched parallel partnerships with the South Carolina Technical College System, Antares Nuclear, and The Nuclear Company, the latter committed to investing up to $5 million over five years in the institution.
South Carolina is positioning itself to become the national hub for nuclear training, in tandem with the revival of new reactor construction. If negotiations over the V.C. Summer site succeed and the university center takes shape on schedule, the state could find itself in an enviable position: when the critical moment arrives, it will already have the human capital in place. That is the advantage being built today — one agreement at a time.
