Pierre Gauthier, CEO of Alstom in the United States and Canada, listens to a speaker during a lunch event at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Chattanooga. The luncheon began Engineers' Week, a weeklong conference of engineers here in Chattanooga.The so-called nuclear renaissance has been slow to power up, but Alstom's chief in the United States said Monday he expects "it's just a question of time."
Alstom CEO Pierre Gauthier said the idea of building more nuclear components was one reason the Paris-based giant built its Chattanooga plant two years ago.
"We were wrong for various reasons" about the renaissance's timing, he told about 200 people at the kickoff of Chattanooga Engineers Week.
Still, he expects the Chattanooga plant to land natural gas component business as well as retrofit equipment in existing power plants. That business will keep the jobs outlook at the Chattanooga factory pretty strong.
"We're here to stay," he said. "Worldwide there will be a demand in nuclear."
State Sen. Andy Berke, D-Chattanooga, said Tennessee has opportunities in the clean energy sector.
"Clean energy is a way for us to forge a future at the top," he said.
Gauthier said he expects natural gas power production to take a good part of the market in coming years.
But, he said, natural gas is a fossil fuel, limited in supply and producing greenhouse gases.
Alstom has spent $300 million on its Chattanooga riverfront factory. The company has said it is aiming to reach a planned workforce of 350. The plant has about 230 workers.
The nuclear renaissance has taken a hard hit because of the world economy and the disaster in Fukishima, Japan, last year, officials have said.
However, earlier this month, federal regulators approved the construction of America's first new nuclear reactors in more than 30 years at Plant Vogtle in South Georgia.
Contact staff writer Mike Pare at 423-757-6318 or mpare@timesfreepress.com.