Westinghouse to begin work on 4 nuclear plants for CHINA
- From: dave.walters@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: 3 Mar 2007 08:35:19 -0800
[While it is slow, and not enough, clearly China is moving ahead in
developing it's infrastructure for nuclear energy utilizing only
Generation III(+) reactors. The number the Knight Ridder reporter
uses...880,000 homes, is false. This number is based on a US aveage of
1.2 KW/hr of power used in an average US home. The Chinese number is
less than 25% of this number. A 1000 MWs power plant of the AP-1000
design can supply power to about 3 million Chinese homes (excluding
use for commerical/industrial reasons). Thus the four units being
purchased can supply power for close to 6 million Chinese residents.
The two Areva plants will output, together, 3200 MWs --David]
Westinghouse to begin work on 4 nuclear plants
[Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News (March 2, 2007)]
Mar. 2--Westinghouse Electric Co. said it signed an accord in Beijing
on Thursday that begins procurement on the $5.3 billion nuclear power
deal announced with the Chinese government in December.
Monroeville-based Westinghouse and its consortium partner, The Shaw
Group, of Baton Rouge, signed a framework agreement with China's State
Nuclear Power Technology Co. for four of Westinghouse's new AP1000
reactors. That design can bring power to more than 880,000 homes --
important to an energy-hungry nation of 1.3 billion people that hopes
to build more than two dozen nuclear power plants by 2020.
Westinghouse spokesman Vaughn Gilbert said the accord provides funding
for Westinghouse and Shaw to begin procuring equipment for the
reactors. Further contracts on the plants will be finalized later this
year, with construction to begin in 2009 and the first plant to begin
operating in 2013.
"This is a significant milestone because it's actually funding for the
project," Gilbert said. He declined to put a dollar figure on the
amount conveyed to the consortium yesterday.
Two of Westinghouse's plants will be built in Sanmen, in Zhejiang
province on China's eastern coast near Shanghai, as announced in
December. The two others are to be built in Haiyang, Shandong
province, near the Yellow Sea, in a refiguring made last month to
accommodate France's Areva SA.
In February, Beijing unexpectedly awarded two plant locations
previously considered for Westinghouse -- in Yangjiang, in
southeastern Guangdong province near Hong Kong -- to Areva in a $5
billion, two-reactor deal with that company. Many observers saw it as
a way to preserve China's 20-year nuclear-power relationship with
France after bestowing the long-awaited contract upon Westinghouse two
months earlier.
Gilbert said about 50 percent of the work for the project will come
from the Westinghouse-Shaw consortium's U.S. facilities, with a
significant portion of that coming from Western Pennsylvania.
The design and project management will come from Westinghouse's
Monroeville facilities, as will the assembly of the nuclear power
plants' instrumentation and control equipment, he said. Fuel rods will
be manufactured at the firm's location in Blairsville, Indiana
County.
Shaw will provide engineering, procurement and commissioning, as well
as project and information management on the Chinese project.
A renewed interest -- domestically and abroad -- in nuclear energy as
a cleaner burning alternative to coal-fueled power plants has prompted
brisk hiring by Westinghouse. In the past two years it has hired 1,700
people companywide, and plans to add between 1,000 to 2,000 nuclear
engineers in the Pittsburgh area over the next decade.
About 3,000 of the firm's more than 9,000 workers are based in the
region, including about 1,800 in Monroeville and 700 at the Waltz Mill
maintenance facility in Madison, Westmoreland County.
Still to be determined is where many of the local staffers will work.
Westinghouse is continuing to weigh whether to expand its headquarters
along Northern Pike in Monroeville, or to build a new facility on more
than 300 acres along Route 228 in Cranberry, Butler County, which
would, over the next few years, house all of its Monroeville
operations.
A decision is expected by March 15.
.
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