Thermostatic controls for gas and electric ranges were made at the Robertshaw plant in New Stanton for practically 40 years, until a shift in demand changed its fortunes and forced the plant to close in January 2000.
The sprawling plant, resting on 186 acres adjacent to the eastbound lanes of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, was all but left for dead, another empty building dotting the rural landscape.
But as luck would have it, Monroeville-based Westinghouse Electric Co. was shopping for land with contiguous office and shop space because the company planned to consolidate its repair and replacement division unit.
Yesterday, Westinghouse officially opened its new Repair and Replacement Services, a division that will supply replacement parts and perform shop repairs for nuclear facilities worldwide.
"Nothing is radioactive here. This is a clean facility," said Bob Merda, manager of motor repair and shop operations at New Stanton and the company's Waltz Mill complex, which is located at Madison, Westmoreland County. He said work at New Stanton includes replacement and repair of electric switchgear, and servicing components for nuclear power plants.
The new facility integrates all non-radiological repair and replacement services under one roof, utilizing about 100,000 square feet — leaving 250,000 square feet for expansion or other tenants. The New Stanton operation will employ about 150 people, many of whom were transplanted from a facility in Cheswick, Allegheny County.
The repair and replacement division needed elbow room, since it shared space at Cheswick with another former Westinghouse unit, the electro-mechanical division, an operation currently owned by the Washington Group, a Boise, Idaho-based company formerly known as Morrison Knudsen Corp.
"We're supporting equipment that was built by Westinghouse, that is now owned by other companies. Our business is a lot about being a huge supply chain, and we have a special niche here," said Michele M. DeWitt, vice president of repair and replacement services.
Westinghouse, which designs, fuels and services nuclear power plants, is a subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. There's a lot of business to go around, since about 40 percent of all nuclear power plants worldwide are Westinghouse designs.
DeWitt, a graduate of Penn State University with a degree in chemical engineering, said South Korea is the company's biggest customer. Of the country's 14 nuclear power plants, about one dozen were designed by Westinghouse.
The New Stanton plant has been involved in a number of ownership changes since Frederick W. Robertshaw invented a thermostatic device to control the flow of gas in a water heater in 1899. He moved to Westmoreland County in 1914, eventually settling down at New Stanton in 1960, when operations in Irwin, Youngwood and Scottdale were consolidated.
The British ownership began in 1986 when Siebe Plc bought the Robertshaw operation from Reynolds Metals Co. Siebe later changed its name to Invensys Appliance Controls, and the company still retains ownership of the New Stanton building.
But Westinghouse has big plans for New Stanton. In fact, the company is planning to install a one-ton crane to support an independent triaxial seismic "shake table," which is designed to simulate earthquakes — handy knowledge when designing and building a nuclear power plant.
Merda said the general rule of thumb is that when a nuclear plant shuts down, it loses $1 million a day.
Workers at highly precisioned machining jobs certainly won't be in the dark, as the shop area is illuminated by 42, 1000-watt metal halite lights.
DeWitt says she has absolutely no reservations about working to support a nuclear energy industry.
"Nuclear is a part of the energy mix. It's a very effective and needed source of power. When my three children ask about my job, I tell them what I do at work helps keep the lights on," she said.
