Verner and James began with a meager staff of three and a small office. Since that time, the company, which does testing and inspection of nuclear power plant systems, has grown to nearly 50 employees working out of a brand-new building in downtown Snoqualmie.

The recent addition to the city, which moved here from Redmond, does non-destructive testing for safety-related components found in nuclear power plants. The privately owned company, headed by General Manager Doug Calender, also inspects tubing and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning components to ensure each nuclear reactor is properly cooled.

Verner and James employees travel across the United States and around the globe to conduct their inspections, sending their data back to Snoqualmie to be analyzed with the help of long banks of computers located on the second floor of their headquarters, located at 8224 Railroad Ave. S.E.

They moved into their new digs earlier this summer, after work on the Snoqualmie building – built by Lavallee Construction – was completed. Calender said one reason his company selected Snoqualmie was because of the traffic gridlock often found in the Redmond area.

“We wanted to move a little bit out of the traffic pattern,” he said.

The company contracts with nuclear power plant operators to provide testing services. Inspections usually occur at the start of a power plant’s fuel cycle, which typically last 12 to 18 months.

“They’re very in-depth,” Calender said. “They inspect the whole plant from top to bottom.”

Once those inspections are done, a team of people scrutinize the date collected.

“Each bit of data is looked at by at least three people in its entirety,” Calender said. “On a big job, we might have up to 80 analysts.” That includes outside analysts brought in by Verner and James.

Inspecting nuclear power plants requires a lot of training. Most of Verner and James’ employees have experience in the natural sciences.

“We have people that have some math or science background, or some computer skills,” Calender said. “There are very strict training and qualification guidelines.”

Verner and James provides training, and the company is required to update its training on an annual basis. A job candidate is subject to a stringent background check – including police records check – and psychological testing. Calender said itOs necessary because of the nature of the job.

“It requires a great deal of responsibility,” he said.

If Verner and James finds problems at a particular plant, it is up to the plant operators, and ultimately the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to make sure they are corrected.

The pace of nuclear power plant construction over the past several years has slowed to a halt because they have fallen out of favor with the American public, leaving an aging stable to continue producing electricity. As the plants grow older, the need for inspections increase, Calender said.

But with California’s recent energy crisis and the continued debate in the Northwest over power-producing dams, Calender said that attitude could change.

“We may be looking at a revival of nuclear power, he said.

As Verner and James’ staff grows, so, too, does the number of services it offers. The company has diversified to inspect petrochemical, pulp and chemical systems, and it also does testing of aircraft components and automotive parts.

“Our growth has been pretty incredible since 1993,” Calender said.