Westinghouse plans to complete a restructuring plan by the end of June and a new business plan by the end of July, the company’s interim president and CEO José Emeterio Gutiérrez told Interfax-Ukraine on 5 May. He said the business plan, covering the next five years, will include implementation of the restructuring plan. He confirmed that Westinghouse had received external financing of $800m to protect the company's core business during its reorganisation. “We are 100% sure that this will be sufficient to support the company throughout the bankruptcy proceedings”, he said. “An important detail is that all the other company divisions are in good shape, continue to generate income and cash flow. That’s why we are convinced that the finances and the profit generated by the other companies, plus the $800m, will be enough while the bankruptcy claim is being reviewed.” Westinghouse, the US-based nuclear unit of Japan’s Toshiba, filed for bankruptcy protection in the US in March 2017. Gutiérrez said the problem arose from cost overruns for reactor construction in the USA. “By late 2016 we realised that the additional cost of completing the construction would be around $6.1bn. This means that the results of the fiscal year, which ended on 31 March, will show significant losses.”
Westinghouse also confirmed that it is committed to its Generation III+ AP1000 reactor technology and will continue existing projects to build units at Sanmen and Haiyang in ChinaThe first AP1000 units at Sanmen and Haiyang are “moving into the final stage of fuel loading” and the first Sanmen unit is on track to begin commercial operation by the end of 2017, the company told NucNet in an email on 3 May 2017. A spokesperson said the company will continue to pursue other potential AP1000 projects because they will be structured in a manner that does not include construction risk. Asked about plans to build six AP1000s in Andhra Pradesh, India, the spokesperson said: “We continue to pursue the India bids as they were structured in a manner that does not include construction risk.” Westinghouse will also continue to cooperate with the UK on the development and eventual deployment of a small modular reactor. “We believe there is great value in the Westinghouse SMR, which applies the AP1000 plant safety technology into a 200MWe-class reactor.”
