US-based nuclear equip -ment maker Westing -house Electric Company has announced  that it expects that its participation in the recently concluded nuclear trade mission to India will be the beginning of a long and mutually rewarding relationship...

with a wide range of Indian power companies, suppliers and academic institutions. Addressing a press conference at end of the mission’s visit in Muimbai on January 16, Ms Meena Mutyala, vice president and business leader, India, forWestinghouse, said the company views the market in India in the most favorable light.

"With 17 operating plants and six under construction, India's nuclear infrastructure is vibrant," she said. "The demand for new nuclear generation is high and we are pleased to be able to participate in providing electricity to this fast-growing economy, and we will do so in a manner that further strengthens India's already-solid nuclear power infrastructure."

WEC's Director (Global Business Development) Robert Pearce said , "We will invest tens of millions of dollars as a minimum to tap India's nuclear power sector,"

Westinghouse Electric Company, a group company of Toshiba Corporation, is the world's pioneering nuclear power company and is a leading supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies to utilities throughout the world. Westinghouse supplied the world's first PWR in 1957 in Shippingport, Pa. Today, Westinghouse technology is the basis for well over 40 percent of the world's operating nuclear plants, including 60 percent of those in the United States.

Pearce said that WEC  might look at forging joint venture with local players, sourcing from them and even outright acquisitions in areas like engineering, construction and equipment making.  "We are in talks with the local players, but nothing has been finalized yet," he said adding that the company would focus on "as much as localisation as possible" for its business here in line with other global markets including China.

Ms. Mutyala said Westinghouse will enter the market in India with its API000™ nuclear power plant.  "Our intent is to use in-country resources in the deployment of API 1000s in India, and to qualify suppliers in India to assist Westinghouse in the construction of API 1000s elsewhere in the world," she said. "Toward that end, we will develop long-term relationships and partnerships with industrial companies, design firms, and academic institutions."

The AP1000, design certified by the NRC in early 2006, is fast becoming the technology of choice in key markets throughout the world. In December 2006, China's State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation selected Westinghouse to provide two API 1000s each at both the Sanmen and Haiyang sites.   Contracts for those plants were signed in July 2007.

In the United States, the API 000 is the announced technology of choice for no less than 14 new plants, including six for which Engineering, Procurement and Construction contracts have been signed.

"Essentially, the API 000 is the identified technology for one-half of the plants announced in the United States," she said. "We attribute this worldwide success to the numerous safety and operational benefits of the API 000 and to our business model, which mandates that we source as much as possible from the countries and regions in which we are building new plants."

Westinghouse believes the API000 is ideally suited for the worldwide nuclear power marketplace, as it is:

• A passively safe design that employs natural forces - natural circulation, gravity, convection and compressed gas - to maintain safety in the highly unlikely event of an accident.
• Based on standard Westinghouse pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology that has achieved more than 2,500 reactor years of highly successful operation.
• An 1 lOOMWe design that is ideal for providing baseload generating capacity.
• Modular in design, promoting ready standardization and high construction quality.
• Economical to construct and maintain (less concrete and steel and fewer components and systems mean there is less to install, inspect and maintain).
• Designed to promote ease of operation (features most advanced instrumentation and control (I&C) in the industry).

WEC offers a wide range of nuclear plant products and services to utilities throughout the world, including fuel, service and maintenance, instrumentation and control and advanced nuclear plant designs.  Its technology is the basis for well over 40 percent of the world's operating nuclear power plants, including 60 per cent of those in the United States.

WEC has already inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the domestic engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to build 1,000 MW pressurised nuclear power plants in India.