Westinghouse CEO touts reactors' safety
Westinghouse Electric Co.'s new generation of nuclear reactors could have withstood the earthquake and tsunami that crippled a nuclear plant in Japan, and that disaster might help the company secure contracts to build them, CEO Aris Candris said on Wednesday.Although an environmental protection group yesterday petitioned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to halt its review of Westinghouse's AP1000 design, Candris said he expects the agency to grant final approval in late summer and, by year's end, to license utilities in the Southeast planning to build six of the reactors.
"We've upgraded the design and done significant testing," Candris said in an interview with the Tribune-Review. Computer modeling reviewed by the NRC and its independent experts shows the AP1000 is about 200 times safer than the regulator's requirements, according to Westinghouse.
The Cranberry-based company expects to finalize agreements with China this fall to build 10 power plants with Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors, Candris said. That's in addition to four, multibillion-dollar AP1000s under construction in China. Candris expects to win more contracts there after that.
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