The nuclear vitality firm Framatome will make investments $400,000 over 4 years to relaunch its Nuclear Expertise Academy, a collaboration with Central Virginia Group Faculty to coach college students to develop into nuclear technicians.

Via this system, college students can earn an affiliate of utilized science diploma in nuclear know-how with a mechatronics observe. They’ll break up their time between the classroom and dealing at Framatome whereas incomes full-time pay with advantages, mentioned Craig Ranson, senior vp of the Put in Base Enterprise Unit at Framatome.

The Framatome Nuclear Expertise Academy has been working because it initially launched in 2004. However this system beforehand was restricted to present Framatome staff and now could be open to all college students, CVCC President John Capps mentioned.

Ranson mentioned this system has been reworked to raised stability college students’ classroom time and on-the-job time, to supply college students extra aggressive pay, and to supply graduates alternatives for full-time, slightly than part-time, jobs at Framatome.

“These college students have the chance to come back out fully debt-free with a job. And that’s superior,” Ranson mentioned at a Thursday information convention asserting the relaunched program.

Framatome, which was known as Areva earlier than it rebranded in 2018, is a France-based firm that employs greater than 16,000 individuals worldwide, together with 1,320 in Lynchburg, the positioning of its North American headquarters.

Framatome designs and maintains giant nuclear reactors, offering management techniques and different gear, gasoline and upkeep providers. Along with servicing present nuclear reactors across the globe, its present tasks embody constructing the 2 European pressurized water reactors for the three,200-megawatt Hinkley Level C nuclear energy station below development in Somerset, England. 

Framatome says it modernized its program with CVCC as a result of it expects the demand for expert nuclear technicians to extend to fulfill U.S. and worldwide vitality wants.

Katherine Williams, Framatome’s chief monetary officer who will develop into its CEO on July 1, mentioned Thursday the nuclear business presents “great alternatives.”

“We’re giving younger individuals the chance to make a distinction, to assist us maintain the lights on, to assist us assist North America develop, and even internationally,” Williams mentioned. “We have now the know-how. We merely want the workforce, the sources, people who find themselves dedicated and are prepared to take the time via this program to get skilled, after which we are going to take it from there and offer you a lot of alternatives.”

The Framatome Nuclear Expertise Academy can have 30 college students in its fall cohort, and Ranson mentioned officers hope to have 30 college students in this system always.

Graduates who develop into nuclear technicians might carry out work resembling non-destructive examination of nuclear supplies, supplying nuclear reactors with gasoline, and upkeep and upgrades at nuclear energy vegetation, Ranson mentioned.

A job posting for a Framatome Nuclear Expertise Academy Technician, obtainable through Framatome’s web site, lists the beginning pay at $20 per hour, with advantages and potential efficiency incentives or annual bonuses.

At Thursday’s information convention — which culminated in officers ceremonially slicing a ribbon that was held in place by two robotic arms — Capps praised the robust relationship between the college and Framatome.

“The importance of that relationship is mirrored in CVCC’s nuclear know-how diploma, the one diploma of its sort within the state of Virginia,” Capps mentioned. “It’s mirrored in the truth that the faculty has skilled over 100 nuclear assist technicians whom Framatome has deployed worldwide.”

The information convention was held at CVCC’s Framatome Expertise Heart, and Capps famous that Framatome had secured the naming rights to the constructing, which opened in 2004, via a donation of $1 million — the most important in CVCC’s historical past. 

Framatome’s assist of the college continues to the current day, Capps mentioned.

“Finally, it underscores Framatome’s dedication to secure and economical low-carbon vitality, the kind of clear, sustainable vitality that our nation and our world desperately want,” he mentioned.

Associated tales