The company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2017, stands to benefit
from growing support for nuclear power and President Trump’s deal with Saudi Arabia.
·
Rising
global electricity demand, driven by data
centres, and renewed support for nuclear energy have strengthened
Westinghouse's market position.
·
Westinghouse
is expected to be a major beneficiary of the U.S.–Saudi nuclear cooperation agreement, which
could generate billions of
dollars for the U.S. nuclear industry.
·
The company
was acquired in 2023
by Brookfield Asset Management
and Cameco,
marking a successful turnaround after its 2017 bankruptcy.
·
Westinghouse's
AP1000 reactor
technology powers the only
two nuclear reactors built in the U.S. in the past decade (Vogtle
Units in Georgia).
·
AP1000
reactors have also been deployed in China
and selected for projects in Eastern
Europe and other regions.
·
According
to Westinghouse, more than
half of the world's existing nuclear reactors are based on its technology.
·
The Trump administration is promoting
nuclear expansion through support for large reactors, shuttered plant restarts,
and small modular reactors
(SMRs).
·
The U.S.
government has announced up to US$17.5
billion in loans to support equipment purchases for 10 new commercial nuclear reactors.
·
Westinghouse
says the initiative could reduce reactor construction timelines by up to three years.
·
The United
States currently operates 96
nuclear reactors at 57 plants, generating about 20% of the country's electricity.
·
Despite
leading the world in nuclear generation, the U.S. has built only three new reactors since the 1990s,
while China
has rapidly expanded its nuclear fleet.
·
Cost overruns
remain a major challenge:
o Vogtle AP1000 project (Georgia): Final cost reached US$35 billion, more than
double the original estimate.
o V.C. Summer project (South Carolina): Cancelled after massive cost overruns, leading
to SCANA's bankruptcy
and about US$9 billion
in costs for customers.
·
The nuclear
industry is increasingly focusing on small
modular reactors (SMRs), which are expected to be faster and less
expensive to build than traditional large reactors.
·
Continued
government support
is considered essential for accelerating nuclear energy development in the U.S.
and globally.
[ABS News Service/23.07.2026]
A large investment firm and a Canadian uranium enrichment company
made a big bet three years ago on nuclear power by acquiring Westinghouse, an energy
company that had fallen on hard times. Now, that wager is proving prescient.
Soaring demand for electricity, driven by data centers, and renewed bipartisan and global interest in nuclear
power have made Westinghouse a go-to source for nuclear power technology.
The prominence of Westinghouse in the development of new nuclear
power plants gained international attention Wednesday after the Trump administration announced
a broad agreement with Saudi Arabia that could
enable the country to enrich its own fuel for nuclear reactors.
Officials in the Trump administration estimated that the deal would
provide billions of dollars for the U.S. nuclear industry — starting with Westinghouse,
which developed the technology used in the only two reactors built in the United
States in the last decade, both in Georgia. A version of Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactors
has also been built in China in recent years, and the AP1000 has been selected for projects in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
Westinghouse regained its footing after Brookfield Asset Management,
a New York investment firm, and Cameco, a uranium enrichment company based in Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan, acquired it in November 2023. Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy in
2017 after it failed to bring a new fleet of nuclear power plants online.
“More than half of the world’s existing nuclear reactors are based
on Westinghouse technology, and today the company provides technical products and
services across the global nuclear market,” Dan Sumner, the chief executive of Westinghouse,
said in an interview on Wednesday. “The foundation of our turnaround has been built
on the strength this operating fleet business.”
After President Trump returned to office last year, his administration
began pushing all types of nuclear development, including reviving shuttered plants
and constructing Westinghouse’s AP1000 and newer reactor types, as well as some
that are much smaller.
Last month, Chris Wright, Mr. Trump’s energy secretary, announced
that the government would lend
up to $17.5 billion to help companies buy nuclear
equipment that would accelerate the development of 10 large commercial nuclear reactors
across the country.
Westinghouse welcomed that effort, saying it would help speed up
the construction and commercial operations of new reactors by as much as three years.
But neither the government nor Westinghouse has said where any of the 10 reactors
will be built.
The United States leads the world in the total number of reactors
and produces the largest amount of electricity from nuclear power plants. Currently
there are 96 nuclear reactors at 57 plants, according to the Energy
Information Administration. Nuclear power produces
about 20 percent of the nation’s electricity, much more than coal but about half
as much as natural-gas power plants.
But the United States has produced just three new reactors since
the 1990s. By contrast, China has been rapidly building reactors in recent decades
and has plans for many more. It has built reactors based on domestic designs and
has more
than a dozen AP1000 units online or under
construction.
A so-called nuclear renaissance in the early 2000s was expected to
produce nearly two dozen new reactors in the United States, but rising costs and
delays resulted in just two units, both AP1000 reactors.
The two units — built alongside existing nuclear reactors at the
Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Waynesboro, Ga., near Augusta — cost
its owner, Southern Company, $35 billion, more than twice the original estimates.
Much of that cost was ultimately borne by individuals and businesses that are customers
of Southern’s subsidiary Georgia Power.
The stunning price tag led many energy experts to dismiss prospects
that the United States would build more large reactors. The focus of the nuclear
energy industry turned to smaller units that power plant developers said they could
design and produce almost on assembly lines. Such reactors are often referred to
as small modular reactors.
The idea for such reactors was inspired by nuclear-powered submarines.
But those reactors use a more highly enriched form of uranium than the kind used
in larger power plants. So nuclear power plant developers, including Westinghouse
and GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy, have been working
for years to develop a small reactor
design that they could commercialize.
Government support for nuclear energy is expected to play a critical
role in getting reactors built in the United States and elsewhere. Some power plant
developers that already had licenses to build reactors but hadn’t used them are
looking to revive their construction plans.
Among them is the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Columbia. S.C.
It was the only other AP1000 project in the United States that made any significant
progress toward construction.
But the effort to build those units led the power company SCANA to
file for bankruptcy as a result of the rising project costs. Customers of the utility
were forced to pay $9 billion in construction costs, though the project was left
incomplete.