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LEGO Group, whose LEGO House in Billund, Denmark, attracts hundreds of thousands every year, continues to move forward with a manufacturing project in Virginia, and announced an expansion in Hungary last week.

Photo courtesy of LEGO Group

Friday, October 6, is Manufacturing Day 2023. Over the nearly 70 years Site Selection has been in publication, documenting the evolution of manufacturing has been intrinsic to our mission. Here are a few recent examples of the thousands of stories catalogued in our archives that feature the voices of manufacturing leaders:

• In “Why LEGO Chose Virginia,” from that same November issue last year, Henrik Priess Sorensen, head of Americas Expansion and Discovery for LEGO Group, told Ron Starner why the company was investing $1 billion in a new complex in Virginia.
• Executives from Oregon-based ENTEK in May 2023 told us why Indiana makes sense for a $1.5 billion project to make separators for lithium batteries, in “ENTEK Finds a Home in Terre Haute.”
• In “The Northern Pull of Production,” May 2023, Scott Balaguer, vice president of global business development for Rochester-based Edwards Vacuum, explains why semiconductor manufacturing is coming back to the Northeast U.S.
• Texas Instruments in that same issue shared insights into an $11 billion investment in Utah in “Tech Springs to Life in Lehi.”
• In May 2021, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies CEO Martin Meeson walked us through the location decision-making behind a $2 billion project in North Carolina — one of several projects the company was pursuing worldwide — in “ ‘Line of Sight’ Drives FUJIFILM Diosynch Biotechnologies’ $2B Project to North Carolina.”

Logo courtesy of Manufacturing Institute

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a go-to resource for nuclear power research.

Photo courtesy of ORNL

At last week’s Roadmaps to New Nuclear conference in Paris, organized by the French Ministry for Energy Transition and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the energy ministers of 20 countries agreed on a joint communiqué in which they highlight the need for nuclear energy to meet global energy challenges. “Nuclear energy is already a key part of the pathways to net zero in many countries, and it can play a much larger role, both through the continued operation of existing installations and the large-scale construction of new nuclear power plants,” said an NEA release. NEA projections show that in order to successfully achieve net zero by 2050, “nuclear energy capacity will need to at least double and potentially triple compared to today.” The U.S. has the largest nuclear fleet in the world, with 92 reactors supplying nearly 20% of the country’s electricity.

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Photo courtesy of Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority

The Gene Leahy Mall, which opened to the public in July 2022, is part of the RiverFront project in Omaha, Nebraska, which “combines three parks in the heart of downtown Omaha into one identity.” Heartland of America Park and Lewis & Clark Landing opened in August 2023. For the Nebraska Spotlight in the November 2023 issue of Site Selection, Senior Editor Gary Daughters is speaking with Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert and major philanthropists behind the project.