CRANBERRY TWP — Aris Candris, Westinghouse Electric Co. president and CEO, on Thursday told the company’s 15,000 global employees about the optimistic future of the nuclear energy industry.

One of the primary topics of the address was the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

While Candris acknowledged the Japan crisis may result in a period of review and reassessment of nuclear energy, he stressed that utilities and governments remain committed to a long-term nuclear energy plan.

“Nuclear energy is a clean, cost-effective and reliable source of baseload power,” he said in a company news release. “It is the only source of electricity generation that produces no greenhouse gases, manages 100 percent of its waste stream, and has the infrastructure in place to meet the world’s growing need for electricity.”

Candris also noted that the Westinghouse AP1000 technology has received favorable attention for its modular design and advanced passive safety features, which enable the plant to shut down safely and automatically with no operator actions even in the event of a Fukushima-like loss of all on-site and off-site power.

Candris said Westinghouse continues to lead the industry in technology development and new plant deployment.

The company is continuing its on-schedule and on-budget construction of four new nuclear units in China, the ongoing site preparation work at the V.C. Summer nuclear power plant in South Carolina and the Alvin W. Vogtle site in Georgia, and the introduction of the company’s new Small Modular Reactor design.

Candris also stressed while new nuclear energy construction has been the focus of worldwide media, the company’s fuel, services and automation businesses also are growing.

“Providing technology, products and services to even further improve the safety and operational aspects of the existing global fleet of plants remains our primary objective,” he said in the release.

“We will continue to make long-term investments in these product lines as we envision a strong future in all market segments.”

Westinghouse employs about 5,000 at its headquarters in Cranberry.