Westinghouse, KNF To Form Joint Venture Company To Manufacture Control Element Assemblies
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Westinghouse Electric Company and Korea Nuclear Fuel Company (KNF) today announced they have inaugurated KW Nuclear Components Company, Ltd. (KWN) which is a joint venture to manufacture Control Element Assemblies (CEA) for the Combustion Engineering (CE)-designed nuclear power plants in the U.S. and Korea.
Under terms of the joint venture agreement, Westinghouse will hold 55 percent ownership of the joint venture and KNF will hold 45 percent ownership. The new company, KWN, will be located at the KNF fuel fabrication plant in Daejeon, 150 km south of Seoul.
The Republic of Korea has a number of CE plants (OPR1000 & APR1400) and is currently engaged in constructing six new units. Shin Kori 3 and 4 are two of the APR1400 nuclear power plants currently under construction in Korea. It is envisioned that Shin Kori 4 will include the first Control Element Assemblies manufactured by the Daejeon facility.
Joe Belechak, Westinghouse Senior Vice President, Nuclear Fuel, said this joint venture agreement will enhance Westinghouse's presence in the Republic of Korea and will continue to foster the relationship between Westinghouse and KNF.
"As the construction of OPR1000 and APR1400 nuclear power plants continues to grow in the Republic of Korea, this joint venture will enable our valued customer, KNF, to further improve the efficiency of their manufacturing operations."
Ik Hwan Lee, KNF President and CEO, said that the collaboration between Westinghouse and KNF through the joint venture KWN will be reinforced in supplying CEAs to utilities in the U.S. and Korea.
Westinghouse, majority owned by 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 technology today is the basis for approximately one-half of the world's operating nuclear plants.
KNF, over 96-percent owned by Korea Electric Power Corporation, is the nuclear fuel supplier for PWR fuels and CANDU fuels in Korea. KNF performs the initial core design and reload core design, including the safety analysis, and has also been developing an advanced fuel called X-Gen.
