Within a week of learning that Mellon Financial Corp. was being bought by the Bank of New York Co. and another corporate headquarters was leaving the region, the decision by Westinghouse Electric's nuclear division to stay in Western Pennsylvania is a big win for the region — and, potentially, for Butler County.

After decades of stagnation, the market for nuclear energy is growing more positive around the globe. Westinghouse reportedly is a leading contender for an $8 billion contract to build reactors in China. European markets also are strong now, and there even are plants slated for construction in the United States for the first time since the serious power plant accident in 1979 at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg.

Due to increasing concerns about global warming, the escalating price of petroleum-based fuels for electricity, and a new generation of new nuclear plant designs, the global market for nuclear reactors is more promising than it has been in decades.

With improving market prospects, Westinghouse Electric Co., which was sold recently to Toshiba Corp. of Japan by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., is expected to hire about 900 new employees this year. And, after that, the company expects to add 500 jobs each year for the next four or five years.

With its current location in Monroeville, Westinghouse was being wooed by other states, including North Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut and Georgia.

It is encouraging that Western Pennsylvania was able to be competitive in what surely was an aggressive marketing effort by those other states.

Gov. Ed Rendell, along with other state and regional officials, deserve credit for putting together a convincing incentive package to keep the company in the region.

The jobs created by Westinghouse will be well-paying, professional positions for engineers, managers and computer programmers. The company already employs about 3,000 people in the region and more than 9,000 worldwide. The coming expansion is expected to account for 2,000 new jobs — or more.

The fact that the company already has a facility in Monroeville might give that area east of Pittsburgh an advantage.

But the availability of land for expansion, and convenient access to Pittsburgh International Airport, could very well give Cranberry an edge over Monroeville.

If Cranberry is selected for Westinghouse's expansion, the addition of several thousand professional, engineering and computer programming jobs will be a very significant boost to the region's workforce. But even if the company decides to expand in the Monroeville area, the decision by Westinghouse to remain where its roots were planted is welcome economic news for Western Pennsylvania.