Westinghouse bankruptcy move casts shadow over world nuclear industry
Plight of US firm, which has technology in about half world's reactors, deals blow to building of new plants
The US bankruptcy filing by nuclear giant Westinghouse has been branded a major blow to the prospects for new atomic power globally.
The nuclear arm of Toshiba proudly states “we are nuclear energy” on its website, a boast underpinned by its technology being in around half the world’s reactors.
But the US firm was humbled on Wednesday when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a New York court, in a bid to reorganise and limit losses for its Japanese owner.
Westinghouse’s plight stems from a $6.1bn (£4.9bn) writedown because costs have overrun on the two plants it is building in Georgia and South Carolina, the first new US nuclear power stations being built for decades. Toshiba said liabilities for its US unit totalled $9.8bn.
The stories you need to read, in one handy email
Read more
Westinghouse has raised $800m in finance for its reorganisation, $200m of which is from Toshiba.
José Emeterio Gutiérrez, the company’s chief executive officer, said: “We are focused on developing a plan of reorganisation to emerge from Chapter 11 as a stronger company while continuing to be a global nuclear technology leader.”
Toshiba said the writedown could mean net losses for 2016 of 1tn yen (£7.23bn), significantly more than the 390bn yen (£2.82bn) it warned investors to expect in February.
Mycle Schneider, a Paris-based consultant and author of an annual global nuclear report, said that although utilities and companies building nuclear plants had gone bust before, it was new to see a bankrupt nuclear builder.
“If Westinghouse was nuclear energy, where does that leave nuclear energy after the Westinghouse bankruptcy? In the dark. This development illustrates that there is no bright future for nuclear new-build and that new nuclear plants will be irrelevant on the international power market,” he told the Guardian.
