BLACKFOOT — With crews working through the winter, a local fabrication business is expected to complete a 40,000-square-foot expansion to bolster its nuclear component production months ahead of schedule.

Since 1996, Premier Technology, 1858 W. Bridge St., has innovated in industries including engineering and design, manufacturing, field services, electrical work, machining and project management. Its clientele is impressive, providing essential services to giants in the industrial manufacturing and mining industries, national laboratories across the United States and the Department of Energy.

“There’s a huge demand signal for work in the nuclear space,” said Doug Sayer, president of Premier Technology Inc. “We’re right on the front end of the nuclear renaissance, which everybody’s talked about for decades, but now it’s right in front of us, and we’re facing it.”

Sayer’s response to that demand is continuing to support his existing customers, adding 40,000 square feet of facility space, extra employees and better equipment, which will have much higher production capacity than Premier Technology’s past equipment.

Premier Technology employs more than 300 workers and is recruiting and hiring 40 to 50 employees to fill new positions once the facility expansion is complete in July.

Those new workers will include engineers, designers, craftsmen and specialized skill positions such as inspectors and quality control personnel. Sayer is also dedicated to bolstering the local economy and those who reside within it, making a concerted effort to use local and Idaho contractors.

Sayer said the expansion is on schedule, with the expectation that the larger pieces of equipment will arrive at the end of May or early June. He hopes everything will be operational by July. If all goes to plan, an open house will be held in the summer.

“We do a really good job of getting things out quickly,” Sayer said. “We just need to do it more often because our orders have increased significantly and we need to continue to support those clients. It’s not just about nuclear, though, because our orders have increased on the commercial side as well. The entire business landscape is allowing us and requiring us to grow.”

The expansion will include a variety of state-of-the-art machinery that will increase both the capacity for volume and the size of the components that Premier Technology can produce. As of 2018, Premier Technology exceeded $100 million in annual sales.

“Whether it’s a micro reactor or a small modular reactor, a waste container, we build a lot of components and containers for the Idaho National Lab on their waste management side,” Sayer said. “We really are a large supplier to the INL and we’re helping them do the cleanup by providing them with equipment, processes, waste canisters and containers and shipping containers.”

In addition to its role in advancing next-generation nuclear technologies, Premier Technology is essential in providing food manufacturers with conveyors, platforms, decks and equipment, and deploys field crews across the United States to help with installation.

Sayer said everyone involved in the expansion worked hard through the winter to get things done, crediting the contractors for their resilience and resolve along with his employees, whose reputations have provided them the opportunity to grow and expand.

“There’s not very many companies that have the certifications and qualifications that Premier Technology has,” Sayer said. “As the demand for those services increase, demand is just a trickle down effect on us, and we’re responding to it.”

For more information on Premier Technology, visit ptius.net.