Westinghouse gets preliminary OK for $5B loan for China nukes [Pgh Bizjnl]
Vincent Lara-Cinisomo
The Westinghouse Electric Co. received preliminary approval Friday for its request for a $5 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank of the United States to support export sales to build four nuclear power plants in China.
China, looking for a way to cut down its consumption of coal, which it uses to provide two-thirds of its energy, and generate less pollution, has said it wants to build at least 30 large nuclear reactors, at an estimated cost of $1 billion each, by 2020.
China currently operates nine nuclear reactors with a combined capacity of 6,500 megawatts, supplying just less than 2 percent of the country's electricity.
But the world's most populous country has told bidders for the project that 70 percent of its components must be made locally as part of a broader effort to develop a domestic nuclear power industry.
Monroeville-based Westinghouse, owned by the British nuclear firm BNFL plc, requested the loan from the Ex-Im bank in the event the Chinese government deems its bid the winner. Westinghouse believes that it is a front-runner in bidding for the project, along with a French firm, Areva, and its joint-venture partner, German-based Siemens.
Public relations manager Vaughn Gilbert said Westinghouse will submit its bid Feb. 28 and hopes to hear a result by the end of the year.
The Ex-Im bank's preliminary commitments may be converted to final commitments by a vote of its board of directors after the applicant has finalized its financing package and met other technical, legal and financial requirements.
Although British-owned, Westinghouse is the only U.S.-based company that makes a pressurized water reactor, the type of design pursued by China. General Electric, its major domestic competitor, makes new generation boiling-water reactors and is thought to be out of the running.
If chosen, Westinghouse expects China would build the AP1000 plants in twos at an estimated cost of $2.2 billion to $2.7 billion, generating some 5,000 jobs in the United States, many of them locally, where the design and engineering would occur and the plant control systems would be built.
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