U.S. firm to build China nuke reactors

[ali ahmad]

BEIJING - China and the United States on Saturday signed an agreement that paves the way for Westinghouse Electric Co. to build four civilian nuclear reactors in China, a multibillion dollar coup for U.S. business over French and Russian competitors.

"This is an exciting day for the U.S. nuclear industry," Bodman said at the ceremony. "It is an example that if we work together we can advance not only our trade relations but also our common goal of energy security."

The agreement capped several days of top-level trade talks between China and the U.S. that otherwise yielded few concrete results. It was signed on the sidelines of a closed-door meeting of five major oil importing nations hosted by China.

 

[Neo]

Great news for China and new opportunities to modernise her nuclear infrastructure.
Is Westinghouse Electrics also transferring technology?

 

[TomCat111]

Great news for China and new opportunities to modernise her nuclear infrastructure.
Is Westinghouse Electrics also transferring technology?

China to Buy 4 Westinghouse Nuclear Reactors

By KEITH BRADSHER

Published: December 18, 2006
HONG KONG, Dec. 17 — China will buy four Westinghouse nuclear reactors in a deal that shows the continued attractiveness of American technology, but may also stir worries in Washington that the United States is selling its competitive advantage an industry at a time.

Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman of the United States and Ma Kai, the minister of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, signed a memorandum of understanding for the reactors in in Beijing on Saturday. The deal calls for the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation to buy the reactors from the Westinghouse Electric Company, which the Toshiba Corporation, based in Tokyo, bought earlier this year.

Neither side announced a value for the reactors. But outside analysts have suggested the total price tag may be anywhere from $5 billion to $8 billion.

Michael Wessel, a commissioner of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which was created by Congress to review bilateral relations, expressed concern on Sunday that based on the broad outlines of the deal, “it appears they are doing what other companies have done, which is to transfer the technology up front.”

Such deals limit the long-term benefits to the United States, while clearly helping China, he said. Chinese companies have also been acquiring technology from Western companies in the past year for everything from aircraft assembly to car design and engine manufacturing.

China’s purchase of American nuclear technology could also stir security concerns in the United States, particularly after objections in Congress to an unsuccessful bid by Cnooc, the Chinese-controlled oil and gas company, for the Unitest States oil company Unocal, and to DP World, of Dubai, taking control of operations at American ports.

But having a Bush cabinet official like Mr. Bodman announce the deal could limit objections to the transaction, at least among Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have tended to be the most outspoken about technology transfers to China. The deal also comes after Congress has adjourned for the year, which should mute political reaction.

American politicians may also be cautious about publicly criticizing the deal right away because of the possibility of an unspoken link between the nuclear technology deal and efforts by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. to persuade China to allow faster appreciation of its currency.

Republicans have been especially critical of Toshiba over the years because of a scandal in 1987, when it emerged that a Toshiba subsidiary had illegally sold advanced submarine propeller technology to the Soviet Union, making it harder for the American Navy to detect Soviet subs.

Steve Tritch, the chief executive and president of Westinghouse, said in a statement that half the value of the contract would be done in China, but that the work would nonetheless support 5,000 design, engineering and manufacturing jobs in the United States. Mr. Tritch said that the deal would also make it possible, however, for China to build future nuclear reactors with less help from overseas.

“Westinghouse, our U.S. supplier base and our consortium partners will continue to benefit much as we do now in the Republic of Korea, where recent new plant awards from that country’s maturing industry still provide about $100 million per plant in U.S. scope,” he said.

Mr. Bodman said at the signing ceremony that, “the Chinese were very demanding.” But he did not elaborate on whether he was referring to the extent of technology transfers, frequently a sticking point in the past, or to other issues.

Vaughn Gilbert, a Westinghouse spokesman, said that the company had successfully licensed technology to France for many years and believed that it could properly manage the transfer of technology to China.

“Technology transfer was a key element of our proposal, but we feel in this proposal and in others we have done that we do it in a way that is beneficial to the United States and to the countries in which we do business,” he said on Sunday.

Tom Donnelly, another commissioner of the United States-China commission and a military expert at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said that civilian nuclear reactors had very little military value for China, which has greater needs in miniaturizing its nuclear warheads and improving missile technology.

Westinghouse prevailed in the bidding over Areva of France and AtomStroyExport of Russia. The Chinese government excluded General Electric, another big producer of nuclear reactors, when the government decided early last year that it would buy pressurized water reactors, not the boiling water reactors that G.E. produces.

But G.E. has not given up in China and continues promoting its relatively new designs; boiling water reactor technology already produces 70 percent of Japan’s nuclear energy.

Ruth A. Shapiro, the executive director of the Asia Business Council, a group similar to the Business Roundtable in the United States, said that with other countries still trying to decide whether to expand their use of nuclear energy, China was in an excellent position to play multinationals against each other to obtain the most advantageous terms.

“We can be sure all of them offered great deals given how competitive the supply side is, and how thin the demand is,” she said.

Westinghouse and its rivals still have a chance at further orders. The International Energy Agency predicted last month that China’s nuclear power generation capacity would rise by 9,000 megawatts by 2015, to 15,000 megawatts. The four reactors announced on Saturday, which are to be completed by 2013, will each have a capacity of 1,100 megawatts.

The transaction is not big enough to make much of a difference in China’s contribution to global warming or air pollution, as China’s reliance on coal will continue to dwarf its use of nuclear energy in the years ahead, energy specialists said.

But while the International Energy Agency and others are advocating greater dependence on nuclear energy as a way to avoid the global warming gases emitted by burning fossil fuels, the latest deal for reactors will do little to slow the rise in China’s emissions.

The International Energy Agency projects that China will add 331,000 megawatts of coal-fired generating capacity by 2015, for a total of 638,000 megawatts. That is the main reason China is expected to move past the United States in 2009 as the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas.

Mr. Bodman announced separately in Beijing that the United States would collaborate with China in research on ways to make coal-fired plants more efficient, and to capture and store the carbon dioxide that they release.

 

[Neo]

Thanks for the link Tomcatt, I too assumed that the deal would come with ToT.

 

[EagleEyes]

Good news for us too. Perhaps the transfer of technology at some extent can be used in helping Chinese to upgrade Pakistans nuclear facilities? I am not too sure if the U.S will help us in upgrading the Chinese built nuclear reactors in Pakistan.

 

[Neo]

If this deal helps China to built more powerful reactors then its will benefit us at some point.
Current export designs have max capacity of 500MW but we need bigger. Pakistan has bought three 375MW reactors sofar, two of them are already operational at Chasnupp.