500 New jobs for Lynchburg

Updated 11:56 a.m.

By Bryan Gentry
Lynchburg News & Advance

Denise Woernle, Areva’s director of corporate communications, said most of the new jobs in Lynchburg will be engineering positions paying $60,000 to $100,000 per year. Hiring will begin soon and will be complete within three years, she said.

To make room for the new positions, the company plans to expand its Old Forest Road facility, Woernle said.

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Gov. Tim Kaine says AREVA NP Inc. will expand its U.S. headquarters, creating 500 new jobs for Lynchburg.

The company plans to invest $25 million for the expansion, and increase its existing engineering/nuclear service staff. AREVA believes it will receive orders for new nuclear reactors in the future.

Lynchburg beat out Charlotte, North Carolina for the expansion.

“It speaks volumes that AREVA NP considers Virginia home for its North American headquarters and continues to invest in its operations in the Lynchburg region,” said Governor Kaine in a news release. “The Commonwealth has major infrastructure to support the nuclear industry, in part due to AREVA’s long-standing history and commitment to the state. The 500 new jobs are in addition to the 2,000 AREVA employees already in Lynchburg who are a vital part of the vibrant, growing knowledge-based and high performance manufacturing economies found in Virginia.”

AREVA designs and builds nuclear power plants, research reactors, engineering, instrumentation and control, modernization maintenance and repair services, components manufacture, and supply of nuclear fuel according to the Governor’s office.

“As the nuclear renaissance continues, we are leading the way with the EPR, (Evolutionary Pressurized Reactor) which was submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for design review in December 2007,” said AREVA NP Inc. CEO Thomas Christopher in the news release. “The next phase in bringing an EPR online by 2015 is the detailed design which requires approximately five million hours of engineering work, and we are aggressively recruiting skilled engineers to support this effort. This expansion will provide much of the space we need to accommodate our growth. Lynchburg, Virginia offers a great place to live and work and we appreciate the support of the city, the region and the state.”

Governor Kaine approved $1 million from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, and $1.5 million from the Virginia Economic Development Incentive Grant to help Lynchburg with the project, according to the news release.

Lynchburg Mayor Joan F. Foster says in the news release, “AREVA NP is a valued corporate citizen in Region 2000 and we are gratified by the expression of confidence in Lynchburg indicated by AREVA NP’s decision to grow further in our community. I want to thank the Governor’s Office, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Region 2000, the Lynchburg IDA, and the City’s economic development team for helping to make this investment a reality. Most of all, I want to express my deep appreciation to AREVA NP for their continuing commitment to the City of Lynchburg and the region.”