From: timesfreepress.com

Chattanooga is going back to the future to reclaim part of its manufacturing base.

Economic recruiters hope the Tennessee Valley can capitalize on the predicted revival of nuclear power to regain some of the engineering, construction and manufacturing jobs the region shed after utilities quit ordering new plants more than three decades ago.

With up to $50 billion of nuclear plant construction and maintenance proposed over the next 30 years, Chattanooga again is trying to stake its nuclear claim. “There’s a lot riding on this area in terms of nuclear power in the future,” said U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a former Chattanooga mayor who favors more nuclear power. “TVA has the ability to lead the way and, if they can show leadership in the partnership they’ve created and actually produce a new unit that makes sense, that will cause nuclear power to break away even more.”

Sen. Corker said Chattanooga is at the hub of the technology corridor that stretches from the NASA rocket building facilities in Huntsville, Ala., to the pioneering nuclear research done in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

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