Even so, Southern Cos. on Jan. 30 said the project contractors Westinghouse Electric and CB&I are delaying by 18 months the start of its two new units. Responsibility for an estimated $720 million in new project completion will likely be litigated between Southern and the contractors.

In Southern's Feb. 6 earnings call, Jamie Cook, Credit Suisse lead construction-sector analyst, noted that the utility was seeking $240 million from the contractors. She added that CB&I refutes the amount, saying it has contractual protectios from what the contractor blames on "regulatory design changes."

Southern estimated Vogtle capital costs at $10 billion last June. The revised schedule, while not yet accepted, would push back unit start-up to mid-2019 and mid-2020, respectively.

CB&I did not comment by ENR's Feb. 9 press time on Vogtle progress or on the firm's welder-training quality control in the wake of a 2014 settlement with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission over faulty welding by workers several years before at a Lake Charles, La., plant owned by Shaw Group, which CB&I bought in 2013.

According to reports, NRC acknowledged CB&I self-reported some weld problems and has taken corrective steps.

Filling the Pipeline

To broaden the pipeline of welders and boost their skills on its Gulf Coast projects, CB&I in December agreed to an undisclosed investment in welding training programs at community colleges in Baton Rouge and Lake Charles that will fund several instructors and new curricula.

"These best practices will be used as a template to improve welding programs across the system, establishing a benchmark for other colleges and systems to follow," says Quintin Taylor, a spokesman for the Louisiana Community Technical College System, which includes 13 state-funded institutions.

He says the state system's craft training is based on NCCER materials and certification standards. "We are currently on pace to exceed 3,000 graduates in welding programs for the 2015 graduating class," says Taylor. He says the state forecasts a need for 4,800 skilled welders in 2015-16.

Owners also have invested, says Taylor. As part of its "skills pipeline" program, Praxair last year provided $300,000 to train 100 welders in an accelerated one-year curriculum, to begin in September. Dow Chemical recently invested $50,000 in scholarships for women to earn non-credit welding certifications.

But in light of Louisiana's current oil-linked budget gap, there is concern among educators and industry firms about the fate of a $40-million state fund created last year to expand training for "high-demand jobs." There is media speculation that the earmark and other higher-education funding is on Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal's chopping block. "At this point, it is too early to speculate about potential cuts to the fund," says Taylor.

With unions also pushing to gain market share on Southeast megaprojects, the plumbers' local in Lake Charles last fall opened a $4-million, 40,000-sq-ft craft training center that, with 52 welding booths, is "the largest welding training center on the Gulf Coast," says Teresa Magnus, a union consultant. The UA also will break ground this year on a similar facility near Houston, she adds. Its Lake Charles local and the community college also have partnered to allow students to join the union and earn credits toward degrees.

"I chose welding as an elective in high school," says Jennifer Van Peldt, now a 13-year union ironworker in the Buffalo, N.Y., area. "You have to love what you do, or you're in the wrong business."

NCCER has set up its training programs so they can be started in high school and completed in technical colleges or industry training programs, says Jennifer Wilkerson, its director of marketing. The programs are modular and scalable, she adds.

Its four-level curriculum covers topics such as oxyfuel cutting, welding symbols, and stainless steel groove welds and correlates with the American Welding Society’s schools excelling through national skills education guidelines.

NCCER has seen resurgence in technical education with significant growth in the number of contractor training programs and technical training schools. “Now what we need are the people to train,” Whyte said.

Fluor HR chief Jim Hanna says the firm has expanded its welder training site in Houston to upgrade structural-steel welders to combination pipe welders, a critical skill set for major industrial projects. According to a Houston Chronicle report last October, the site uses VRTEX 360, a virtual reality welding simulator. The firm also is providing free after-hours craft training at its major project sites.

Experts see the benefits of hands-on training in welding that can't be replicated artificially. "A good welder has many sensory abilities," says Stephen Liu, director of welding research at the Colorado School of Mines. "Those are real-time, adaptive controls. Robots aren't very adaptable."