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Westinghouse Beats Russians for Chinese Nuclear Contract
Ma Kai, Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China, and U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman have signed a memorandum of understanding on the sale of four atomic generating units manufactured by Westinghouse worth about $8 billion. The American company, part of the Toshiba Group, is thus the winner of a tender declared in 2004, beating out the state-owned Russian Atomstroiexport and French Areva, which had been considered the favorite, having built 4 out of the 11 generating units now in operation in mainland China.
Chinese media report that the generators are intended for the construction of atomic energy plants in Sanmen, Zhejiang Province, and Yangjiang, Guangdong. Each generator is to have a capacity of 1100 Mw. Westinghouse Electric president Steve Tritch said that 5500 new jobs would be created by the contract for their manufacture.
Areva is not commenting on what a spokesman called the “rumors” of the tender results. French President Jacques Chirac lobbied for Areva during his visit to China in October, saying that it was dangerous to give a contract to “people whose project exists only on paper and who haven't built anything for many years,” referring to Westinghouse.
Atomstroiexport acknowledged that it had lost the tender. Kommersant has learned that Westinghouse agreed to provide the technology to produce AP1000 reactors, whereas Areva and Atomstroiexport were only prepared to provide part of the technology. Atomstroiexport and the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy (Rosatom) still plan to expand business with China. “There is a principle agreement that the Chinese will give us the contract for the construction of two more units at Tianwan without a tender after the launch of the first two blocks of the atomic power plant,” a Rosatom source said. The first unit at that plant is already in operation, and the second is scheduled to start up in the spring of next year. Rosatom is expecting that plant to expand to eight units, with Atomstroiexport building all of them.
www.commersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 19, 2006
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