COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s nuclear industry is already among the nation’s strongest.

By sheer megawattage per hour, the Palmetto State generates the fourth-highest share of nuclear energy in the United States. From an economic standpoint, the industry is a powerhouse, with studies estimating the industry contributes as much as $11.1 billion to S.C.’s economy every year, supporting just under 42,000 jobs statewide.

It’s poised to get stronger.

Industry players in the tech sector, including companies like Google, have begun putting down roots in South Carolina, building relationships with leaders in government and higher education. Once-shuttered projects, such as the two uncompleted reactors at the Fairfield County-based VC Summer nuclear plant, are in talks to be rekindled via private investment.

Meanwhile, industry leaders have begun flocking to South Carolina to capitalize both on the state’s friendly regulatory environment and an increasingly attractive landing site for data centers, which state leaders see as a potential driver of economic development into the 21st century.

South Carolina’s colleges and universities have seen this type of boom before, said Hossein Haj-Hariri, dean of the Molinari College of Engineering at the University of South Carolina. When the state began positioning itself as a leader in aerospace engineering, his institution hustled to put in place a program that could help educate the workforce necessary to help drive the new influx of investment by companies like Boeing into the state’s economy that now graduates 150 students each year.