Onondaga Community College and two other Central New York training programs are among the beneficiaries of $10 million in New York Power Authority awards for nuclear-energy workforce development. The funding announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul will support welding, construction, technical training and services intended to help participants complete the programs.
The Power Authority board approved six awards Tuesday. The programs are designed to prepare workers for potential careers in an advanced nuclear sector the state hopes to expand, but an award for training is not an announcement of a new plant or a guarantee of jobs for graduates.
Central New York training routes
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute received $1.857 million for a consortium with Onondaga Community College and Westchester Community College. The partners plan to prepare students for jobs that could include welding, radiation protection, heating and cooling, and construction. The program also calls for 2+2 transfer agreements allowing OCC and Westchester students to continue at RPI.
The RPI award includes equipment, certification costs and support services. The release did not provide a separate dollar amount earmarked specifically for OCC or an enrollment date for its portion of the program.
The SUNY Syracuse Educational Opportunity Center received $1.196 million. Its proposed training covers instrumentation and controls, welding, and civil and structural construction. Participants will have access to services such as childcare and transportation, according to the state.
The Manufacturers Talent Institute was awarded $1.062 million for a Central New York program with nearly 200 hours of hands-on welding instruction, recognized certifications, meals, transportation, childcare and coaching. The governor's office did not identify a specific campus or county for that institute in the announcement.
Those three awards total $4.115 million for programs involving Central New York. They are part of the $10 million statewide package, not an additional allocation. The state did not say how many trainees in Onondaga County will enroll or when the first classes will begin.
Where the other awards go
A statewide partnership between the Workforce Development Institute and the New York State Building and Construction Trades Council received $3.65 million to prepare union trades workers for construction and maintenance roles. The funding covers training materials and equipment, along with services that may address transportation, childcare, housing, food and mental health referrals.
Jamestown Community College received $1.29 million for a three-course nuclear manufacturing microcredential and a welding-certification pathway integrating nuclear content into existing technical programs. Stony Brook University received $945,000 for welding, heating and cooling, and radiation-work training, including four paid internships at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
The six listed awards total $10 million. They are the first awards from a $40 million Power Authority commitment to nuclear workforce development, the governor's office said. NYPA separately supports wider clean-energy training; those earlier commitments are not part of Tuesday's award total.
State's nuclear expansion remains in planning
Hochul has directed NYPA to pursue at least 1 gigawatt of advanced nuclear generation upstate. Her wider nuclear “reliability backbone” goal is 8.4 gigawatts, combining existing capacity with proposed new generation. Reaching those targets would require separate project selection, approvals, financing and construction; the new training grants do not complete those steps.
The state Public Service Commission opened a proceeding this year to evaluate how new nuclear power could be brought online. State energy agencies also issued an options paper examining commercial barriers, financial risk, policy support, technology choices and procurement approaches. Those policy decisions remain separate from preparing a potential workforce.
NYPA says it will work with award recipients to align curricula with industry needs and make certification routes accessible. The release describes broad career pathways but does not specify wages, job-placement rates or a timetable for when new nuclear facilities might hire graduates.
For local students, the most concrete announced opportunity is a new training and transfer route involving OCC, alongside the Syracuse Educational Opportunity Center program. Prospective participants will need later details from those institutions about applications, eligibility and class schedules.
The award descriptions span both construction trades and specialized operations work. That distinction matters because a welding credential, a transfer degree pathway and radiation-protection training prepare participants for different roles. The state has not said which employers will accept each credential or whether graduates will need additional licensing or on-the-job instruction.
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