The shortlist runs ten names long, and the part that matters most in Oswego County is that the welding classes started first.

Tim Knauss at syracuse.com reported Friday that the New York Power Authority has narrowed to 10 the companies that could build the state's first new nuclear plant in a generation, confirming a list NYPA put out Thursday.

What happened

NYPA named 10 qualified developers for a project of at least 1 gigawatt of advanced nuclear power in Upstate New York. Six of them can go either direction, a large reactor or a small modular one: Avangrid, Elementl Power, NextEra Energy, Oppenheimer Energy, The Nuclear Company, and Turquoise Power. Four are small modular only: Blue Energy, Holtec International, TerraPower, and X-energy. Knauss reported that a large reactor here means roughly 1,000 megawatts, enough for about a million homes, while a small modular reactor means 300 megawatts or less, and that Avangrid's entry comes through its New York utilities, New York State Electric and Gas and Rochester Gas and Electric.

Eight communities have told NYPA they would host the thing. Oswego County is the one everybody watches, because it already has three reactors operated by Constellation and the workforce that goes with them.

NYPA says it will now go to one or more of the ten for a proposal on a specific plant at a specific site, and that it wants a host community, a technology and a development partner picked in the coming months.

Why it counts

Start with the work that already exists. At a forum in Oswego in February, Rich Barlette, director of state government affairs at Constellation, said the company's three upstate nuclear facilities support 14,400 local jobs. That is the baseline a fourth plant would build on, not a projection.

Greg Lancette, an international representative for the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry, said at that same forum that Building Trades members in Central New York have worked nuclear construction, refueling and plant upgrades since nuclear energy began in the state. He described that workforce as community-based and generational, and said the trades are planning to expand their capacity to supply skilled labor. Phil Church, the Oswego County administrator, put it plainer: the county already has a qualified nuclear workforce.

A worker in green coveralls, a white hard hat and red boots climbs a yellow steel ladder past pumps and pipework inside an industrial plant.
Photo by Marianna Krzakiewicz / Unsplash

The money to widen that pipeline is already moving, which is the detail most of the coverage skipped. On September 29, NYPA's board approved $10 million in nuclear workforce awards, drawn from a $40 million commitment. The largest piece, $3,650,000, went to the Workforce Development Institute together with the New York State Building and Construction Trades Council, to train union trades workers for advanced nuclear construction and maintenance, with support services including transportation, childcare and housing. The rest went to schools: $1,857,000 to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for a consortium with SUNY Westchester and SUNY Onondaga community colleges, $1,290,000 to SUNY Jamestown Community College for a nuclear manufacturing micro-credential and a welding certification pathway, $1,196,000 to the SUNY Syracuse Educational Opportunity Center for instrumentation and controls, welding and civil and structural construction, $1,062,000 to the Manufacturers Talent Institute for nearly 200 hours of welder training and certifications, and $945,000 to SUNY Stony Brook.

Gary LaBarbera, president of the New York State Building Trades, called it a clear path to the middle class. That is the whole argument, and it is being made before a site has been chosen.

A worker in a blue cap and ear defenders leans over a workpiece at a bench in a fabrication shop, with a sign reading zona de soldadura on the wall behind.
Photo by TECNIC Bioprocess Solutions / Unsplash

The politics, or the lack of them

In Oswego, the people pushing this are not lined up by party.

That February forum put Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, a Republican from Pulaski, and State Senator Chris Ryan, a Democrat representing the 50th District, on the same panel, alongside Constellation, the pipefitters, the county administrator and the regional business group CenterState CEO. Barclay had backed the project the day Gov. Kathy Hochul announced it in June 2025, calling himself a longtime nuclear advocate.

“I look forward to working with local and state officials, private industry, and labor partners to help make it happen.”

Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, Republican of Pulaski, on the day the nuclear plan was announced

Ryan, from the other side of the aisle, said of the workforce awards that the working people of New York are ready for the task. Barclay's line about Oswego was that it is “already home to three reactors and would be the ideal site for the new facility.” Two parties, one county, the same pitch.

The numbers

  • 10: companies NYPA says are qualified to build the project (NYPA, Nov. 12)
  • 6 and 4: how they split, six able to build either a large reactor or a small modular one, four small modular only (NYPA)
  • 1,000 megawatts and 300 megawatts: roughly what each of those two options means, with the larger serving about a million homes (syracuse.com)
  • At least 1 gigawatt: what NYPA is aiming for in Upstate New York (NYPA)
  • 8: communities that said they would host it (NYPA)
  • 3: reactors Constellation already operates in Oswego County (syracuse.com)
  • 14,400: local jobs supported by Constellation's three upstate nuclear facilities, per the company (Constellation, at the February forum)
  • $10 million: nuclear workforce awards approved by NYPA's board on Sept. 29, out of a $40 million commitment (NYPA)
  • $3,650,000: the share going to the Workforce Development Institute and the NYS Building and Construction Trades Council (NYPA)
  • Nearly 200 hours: welder training funded at the Manufacturers Talent Institute (NYPA)

What comes next

The public part gets quieter from here, and it is worth saying so plainly. Knauss reported that the next round of solicitation and negotiation with developers will be covered by nondisclosure agreements, and that nothing will be announced publicly until a project is selected. So the next visible milestone is the decision itself: a community, a technology, a partner.

Siting is where the local consequences sit. Eight communities raised their hands and only one gets the construction payroll. Oswego has the incumbent advantage of three reactors and the crews who maintain them, but NYPA has not said how it weighs that.

The training is the part that does not have to wait. The welding certifications, the instrumentation coursework, the Jamestown micro-credential and the trades council program are funded and running now, ahead of a site decision. Because the awards were written statewide, they feed the plant wherever in Upstate New York it lands. That is unusually sensible sequencing this early.

The Bottom Line

A shortlist is not a shovel. Nobody has picked a site, a reactor or a contractor, and the next stretch of this happens under nondisclosure agreements. But the workforce side is already past the announcement stage: $10 million is out the door, the state's building trades council has the biggest share of it, and six SUNY-connected programs are teaching welding, instrumentation and nuclear manufacturing to people who will be journeymen before a single permit is issued. Oswego County's three existing reactors support 14,400 jobs today. Whoever gets picked from this list of ten inherits a workforce that a Republican assembly leader and a Democratic senator have both spent the year arguing for.

Sources

Feature photo by Benjamin Wedemeyer / Unsplash.