According to the study, the top dozen states in peak job creation would be:
- South Carolina - 50,800 jobs
- Texas - 47,100
- Illinois - 43,400
- Florida - 29,300
-- California -- 22,100
- Pennsylvania - 21,500
- New York - 20,800
- North Carolina - 20,700
- Ohio - 20,600
- Maryland - 17,900
- Arizona - 17,300
- Georgia - 15,200
The report was commissioned by the Council to examine the state-level economic and employment benefits that could accrue if the U.S. were to embark on a large-scale effort to build new nuclear power plants and other nuclear energy infrastructure. This study builds on a study conducted in 2007 by the economic modeling experts at Oxford Economics which examined the benefits that could accrue if the United States were to engage in a new wave of nuclear power plant construction. This follow-on study identifies which states stand to reap the largest share of the design, manufacturing, construction, operations and other jobs that would be created by the nuclear infrastructure construction program.
Council President Scott Campbell said "This state-level analysis clearly and powerfully articulates the benefits of building new nuclear
infrastructure. A serious program of new nuclear construction offers substantial gains in job creation, GDP growth and greenhouse gas reductions."
Other findings of the report include:
- Maintaining the current generation capacity of the US nuclear energy industry would imply a reduction in US reliance on fossil fuel imports for generation of up $49 billion per year, while higher fossil fuel prices would make these savings even greater
- Nuclear energy produces electricity without the attendant carbon emissions that come from burning fossil fuels. Maintaining the current
nuclear generation capacity would mean reducing future US emissions by 450 million tons of CO2 per year compared to a zero-nuclear generation baseline.