Westinghouse wins $5.3-billion China nuclear deal

Westinghouse Electric Co of the US has won a $5.3-billion contract from China to build four nuclear reactors. Westinghouse will build two reactors at Sanmen in Zhejiang province and two at Yangjiang in Guangdong, the US department of energy said in a statement.

Westinghouse, owned by Japan-based Toshiba Corporation, won the multibillion-dollar nuclear power deal edging out French and Russian rivals to secure a contract that may help Beijing smooth ties with Washington.

The Westinghouse - Shaw group consortium will use Westinghouse's AP1000 passive Generation III technology as the basis for four new nuclear power plants to be constructed in China. The consortium will begin to work closely with China's State Nuclear Power Technology Company (SNPTC) to negotiate final contract.

The agreement, signed during a five-nation energy summit, came after the first round of the China-US trade talks. US energy secretary Samuel Bodman and Ma Kai, head of China's National Development and Reform Commission, signed the agreement in Beijing.

Construction of the nuclear reactors will start in early 2007, Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Shaw Group Inc., a consortium partner in the Westinghouse project, said in a statement. Shaw Group owns 20-per cent stake of Westinghouse.

The four reactors will have a combined capacity of 1,100 megawatts each, the department said in the statement. The plants should start operating by 2013, Westinghouse President Stephen Tritch said.

Westinghouse would also transfer technology to China that could be used in the construction of more nuclear reactors in China during the next 15 to 20 years.

The contract won after a two-year battle is expected to produce 5,500 jobs in the US.