• By Adriana Acosta •
• Originally published April 14, 2010 at 3:29 p.m., updated April 14, 2010 at 3:29 p.m.

American’s Building Trades Unions will provide skilled union labor for the construction of units 3 and 4 of South Texas Project under an agreement reached last week.

About 6,000 people will work up to 25 million hours in the next five years.

Construction for the new units are expected to begin once the expansion receives its Combined License Agreement from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and should last about five years with unit 3 coming online in 2016 and unit 4 in 2017.

“Today’s labor agreement is another step that moves our project forward,” said Buddy Eller, director of communication and public affairs for South Texas Project.

The site remains one of the best locations in the nation for expansion because the land, water and transmission infrastructure is already in place, he said.

“New nuclear construction at STP will be an integral part of the American nuclear renaissance and rebuilding the nation’s energy infrastructure,” said Steve Winn, chief executive officer of Nuclear Innovation North America, in a statement released by NRG. Clean reliable nuclear energy is key to meeting the environmental challenges as well as reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign energy, Winn said.

Having this agreement will provide the skilled labor necessary to construct the new units, Eller said.

“We believe that our site remains one of the best locations in the nation for expansion. In addition, we have very strong community support. We are please that this agreement has been reached,” Eller explained.

An economic study conducted by The Perryman Group, a Texas economic and financial analysis firm, estimates construction of the units will bring in more than $15 billion in business activity, $3.6 billion in spending and $600 million in local and state revenues annually once the units are operational.

STP currently has 1,300 contract workers from 47 states working in unit 1 refueling outage.

Eighty-five percent of those contract workers that are in the refueling outage have worked on site before, said Eller.

“We are on the path to success,” said Matagorda County Judge Nate McDonald.

This is a critical path to the energy loan guarantee, he said

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