[QUOTE]Westinghouse Electric Co. is moving to shore up its nuclear-power business by buying out a construction partner it has blamed for problems at the four reactors now being built in the U.S.
The company said it would pay $229 million to buy the nuclear construction division of Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. Westinghouse and CB&I had been equal partners in building the massive reactors that Westinghouse designed.
“Westinghouse is now in charge of everything,” said Danny Roderick, chief executive of the Pittsburgh-based unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp.
“We were all spending too much time on commercial issues and it was dragging the project down,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “I think this will work out best for everyone.”
Westinghouse said it would bring in Fluor Corp., a big engineering firm, to assist with completion of two reactors in Georgia for Southern Co. and two reactors in South Carolina for SCANA Corp.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]The utilities expect the first reactors at each site to be finished in 2019 and the second in 2020.
The commercial shake-up reflects the changing dynamics of the nuclear industry. At one time, as many as two dozen U.S. utilities said they were interested in building new reactors, with the greatest number favoring Westinghouse’s AP1000 design.
But sluggish demand for electricity after the 2008 recession, falling prices for natural-gas generation and nuclear setbacks following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan caused all the utilities except Southern and SCANA to slow or abandon these plans.
One problem that dogged the U.S. projects was use of a construction technique—new to the nuclear industry—in which reactors are constructed from giant modules built in factories and then hauled to project sites and assembled.
CB&I executives, in prior interviews, acknowledged they had difficulty getting modules built and delivered in a timely fashion.[/QUOTE]
[URL="http://www.wsj.com/articles/westinghouse-buys-cb-i-to-beef-up-its-nuclear-business-1446069210"]Source.[/URL]
Basically: When CB&I bought out Shaw, they acquired Shaw's nuclear construction division (Stone & Webster) as well. Westinghouse designed the AP-1000 reactors being built at Vogtle and VC Summer, but CB&I Nuclear was doing the actual construction. Now, Westinghouse will be doing everything, and have Fluor come in as project/construction personnel management.
[quote]One problem that dogged the U.S. projects was use of a construction technique—new to the nuclear industry—in which reactors are constructed from giant modules built in factories and then hauled to project sites and assembled.[/quote]
this doesn't sound like a bad idea at all, components can be quality checked pretty thoroughly before being delivered to site, if they need to do something to get the gears rolling on this, i hope it works
[del]Westinghouse? Like the same company that makes those extremely shitty TVs?[/del]
Never mind, two different Westinghouses.
[QUOTE=Sableye;49005330]this doesn't sound like a bad idea at all, components can be quality checked pretty thoroughly before being delivered to site, if they need to do something to get the gears rolling on this, i hope it works[/QUOTE]
It's already working. Westinghouse has a factory in Louisiana where they are building the reactor cores and things like that, then they get assembled at the modulus Assembly Building (MAB) on site, then placed in the containment building by one of the worlds biggest cranes.
[url]http://www.southerncompany.com/what-doing/energy-innovation/nuclear-energy/photos.cshtml[/url]
Well, I've got family who worked at Shaw, then found out they were working for CB&I, and they'll probably be now listed as an employee of Westinghouse. Mergers out the wazoo these days, huh?
Hopefully this'll somewhat accelerate the process of getting the reactors up and running, since in the U.S. it seems that some building times can be vastly delayed due to issues like construction problems, litigation, and so on.
[QUOTE=ScriptKitt3h;49007497]Well, I've got family who worked at Shaw, then found out they were working for CB&I, and they'll probably be now listed as an employee of Westinghouse. Mergers out the wazoo these days, huh?
Hopefully this'll somewhat accelerate the process of getting the reactors up and running, since in the U.S. it seems that some building times can be vastly delayed due to issues like construction problems, litigation, and so on.[/QUOTE]
Out here it seems like it's been mostly problems with manpower, planning and scheduling, and communication. Hopefully having Westinghouse doing everything except for the actual construction part will streamline everything.
I think when CB&I bought Shaw, they really only wanted their oil, natural gas, and chemical divisions, but not really their nuclear division. But they had to buy the whole shebang.
Eh, just Westinghouse eating up smaller companies with their nuclear division. But hey, I suppose you still have GE for that.
[QUOTE=Sableye;49005330]this doesn't sound like a bad idea at all, components can be quality checked pretty thoroughly before being delivered to site, if they need to do something to get the gears rolling on this, i hope it works[/QUOTE]
It's a slight problem though, if they don't bother test-fitting in the factory before they ship it off to be assembled in the field.
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;49008093]It's a slight problem though, if they don't bother test-fitting in the factory before they ship it off to be assembled in the field.[/QUOTE]
ya but thats the entire point to building it in a factory instead of fabricating on site, they can pressure test some parts, idk how exactly they put their modules together, but if they have a component thats made up of multiple modules they can't exactly pressure test it in the factory
So, when will Westinghouse start to manufacture plasma-based weaponry?
Wow I thought westinghouse just made really bad consumer electronics
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
