Despite its bankruptcy, Westinghouse Electric Co. won a $450 million contract from the Tennessee Valley Authority on Thursday to fabricate nuclear fuel through 2030.
TVA directors agreed to use Westinghouse for the fuel fabrication after TVA Executive Vice President Joe Grimes told the board that TVA will obtain appropriate credit assurances before any contract with Westinghouse is signed. Westinghouse was the low bidder for the contract, which has a proposed term of 14 years.
Grimes said Westinghouse has a proven technology for the two Westinghouse-designed plants TVA operates in Tennessee – the Sequoyah Nuclear Power Plant near Soddy-Daisy and the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tenn. Grimes said TVA will obtain adequate protections to ensure that it will get ongoing fuel supplies at contract prices from either Westinghouse or its successors.
Westinghouse, a subsidiary of the Japanese-based Toshiba, filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in March after projecting it could lose up to $10 billion from costly problems at the nuclear plants it is building in Georgia and South Carolina.
The fiscal problems for Westinghouse related entirely to its construction operations, and not its fuel or services businesses, TVA President Bill Johnson said.