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- Westinghouse seals mega China nuclear deal
Date: 26-Jul-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
UNITED STATES-BASED Westinghouse Electric signed Tuesday a multi-billion-dollar deal with Chinese partners to build four nuclear reactors in eastern China, finalizing a pact agreed between the Chinese and U.S. governments seven months ago.
The contract, estimated in the past at close to US$8 billion, is expected to warm relations between the world's top energy users amid recent disputes over issues such as the yuan currency and China's trade surplus.
'The definitive contracts signed today will result in the first-ever deployment of advanced U.S. nuclear power technology in China,'Westinghouse president and CEO Steve Tritch said at the signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Construction will begin in 2009, with the first plant slated for operation in 2013 and the remaining three coming on line in the next two years, Westinghouse said in a statement. It did not give specific financial terms but said the deal would create some 5,000 jobs in at least 20 states in the United States.
Westinghouse, owned by Japan's Toshiba Corp., will build four 1.1-gigawatt reactors using its advanced AP1000 design, a technology the Pittsburgh-based company said is the basis for nearly half of the world's operating nuclear plants.
The deal will reaffirm China at the forefront of a global trend towards increased use of atomic power, touted by many nations as the cleanest and cheapest solution to the world's strained energy industry.
Westinghouse and its engineering partner Shaw Group Inc. will build two reactors in Haiyang City of Shandong Province and another two in Zhejiang Province's Sanmen City.
China Power Investment Corp. (CPIC) will be the lead investor for the Shandong plant, and China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) the main investor in Zhejiang.
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