CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — French energy company Alstom will create at least 350 jobs in a Chattanooga expansion that will build steam and gasoline turbines, some for nuclear plants, executives of the company said.
Guy Chardon, senior vice president of the energy company's turbomachines group, said construction of the new 350,000-square foot facility at its existing plant site on the Tennessee River would take about two years.
Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce spokesman J.Ed. Marston said the project represents an investment of $280 million.
Alstom executives said they already have some contracts to build turbines in the United States. The Paris-based company currently has more than 600 employees in Chattanooga.
Gov. Phil Bredesen, state Economic Development Commissioner Matt Kisber and Tennessee Valley Authority President and CEO Tom Kilgore spoke at the news conference where the addition was announced. Bredesen said the project represented more than new jobs and he predicted the high-tech operation would ''have a ripple effect throughout the economy statewide.''
Kilgore said Alstom is ''already a big supplier at TVA,'' having sold equipment that helps the utility reduce some power plant emissions. He predicted that TVA would be ''both a supplier and customer'' to Alstom.
''We provided some incentive loans to help with this,'' Kilgore said.
TVA is boosting its stake in nuclear power, already moving ahead with a second reactor at its Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Spring City and as part of an energy alliance seeking a license to build a two-reactor plant at TVA's Bellefonte site in northeastern Alabama.
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission official months ago predicted that nationwide the agency would be getting new applications for as many as 29 reactors at 20 sites, most in the South, over the next three years.
Kilgore said the company was locating the turbine-making operation on the region's ''front porch.''
''Obviously not having to ship turbines or equipment halfway around the world will help Alstom be more competitive,'' Kilgore said in a statement after the announcement.
Kisber declined to identify other states that sought the Alstom project but said there were competitors ''in the eastern part of the U.S.''
Trevor Hamilton, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce's vice president for economic development, said changes in Tennessee's business recruiting incentives ''helped'' lure the Alstom jobs to Chattanooga.
Andrea Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Department of Economic and Community Development, said Alstom was already in line to get $1.2 million for training of new employees and could qualify in the future for tax credits, depending on the number of employees hired and the amount of investment in industrial machinery.
Mike Dunne, a spokesman for Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey, said ''incentive numbers have not been finalized and we don't have them at this time.''