A planned fleet of Westinghouse nuclear reactors in the U.S. would bring $20 billion in annual economic impact and support more than 22,000 jobs, according to a new report commissioned by the Cranberry-based company.
Westinghouse released the figures Wednesday to bolster the case for constructing 10 AP1000 reactors across the country and leading a Trump administration-backed nuclear power renaissance. “Big Four” multinational accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers assembled its report primarily using Westinghouse data.
“This report highlights that work to deploy a 10-unit AP1000 fleet can begin immediately, creating long-term economic benefits as well as high-paying, highly skilled jobs for generations to come,” Westinghouse interim CEO Dan Sumner said in a statement.
America’s largest nuclear engineering company announced its plans in July at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University, vowing to break ground by 2030.
Just assembling the fleet would create about $93 billion in gross domestic product along with $55 billion in labor income and $20 billion in tax revenues, the report said. Over the projected 80-year lifespan of the reactors, they’d generate an estimated $1 trillion in gross domestic product, $329 billion in labor income and $271 billion in tax revenues.
PricewaterhouseCoopers calculated economic impacts using spending and wages connected to operating and supplying the facilities as well as consumer spending by workers.
Running the plants will take some 5,000 engineers, chemists, nuclear technicians, craft laborers and other workers, according to the report. Westinghouse already has more than 11,000 employees, including about 3,100 in Pennsylvania.
The AP1000 is Westinghouse’s flagship reactor, boasting automatic safety systems that operate without power and a standardized design that shortens construction timelines.
Six of these reactors are in operation worldwide. Another 14 are being built.
But they haven’t caught on domestically. Only two AP1000 reactors are active in the U.S., both at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. They came online in 2023 and 2024, several years behind schedule and $18 billion over budget.
None are under construction in Westinghouse’s home country.
President Donald Trump is aiming to quadruple America’s nuclear energy production capacity to 400 gigawatts from 100 gigawatts by 2050. To that end, the U.S. Department of Commerce struck an $80 billion deal with Westinghouse in October to help finance the AP1000 rollout.
A single AP1000 reactor can produce just over 1 gigawatt. The 10-unit fleet will be able to power more than 7 million homes, according to Westinghouse.