American-made, Japanese-owned Westinghouse

Westinghouse is the Japanese-owned U.S. company that wants to build the Czech Republic's nuclear reactors, a jumble of international interests that is typical both of nuclear power projects, some of the largest commercial ventures in the world, and a globalized market where traditional companies can be bought by foreign ones but keep their original identities.

"I think of it as the same way the Czech government promotes Škoda cars, even though Škoda Auto is 100 percent owned by German concerns," said Václav Bartuška, the Czech Ambassador for Energy Security who was recently back from a trip to Tokyo. "But it remains that most of the jobs involved in making Škodas are in the Czech Republic and Mladá Boleslav."

Toshiba holds a 77 percent stake; The Shaw Group, a U.S. Engineering firm, holds 20 percent; and IHI (Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.), a Japanese electrical engineering company, holds 3 percent.

One year later, Westinghouse signed a contract to provide China with four AP1000 reactors, the models it is bidding to build at Temelín and which are expected to go online in 2013.

Westinghouse Electric Company's corporate headquarters remain on a campus in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb 20 kilometers north of Pittsburgh.

"Westinghouse is a U.S. company operating under the laws and regulations of the United States," said Gilbert Vaughn, PR manager at Westinghouse, in an e-mail to The Prague Post. "More than one half of our approximately 14,000 employees are in the United States, where we have major installations throughout Western Pennsylvania and in South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Connecticut, New Hampshire, etc."

Vaughn stressed the company's European operations, though, explaining that 30 percent of Westinghouse's workforce is in Europe and that its European operations account for approximately 30 percent of its revenue.

"We also adhere to a very aggressive 'Buy Where We build' policy that is designed to procure as much product and services as possible from suppliers within the countries in which we are conducting business," he added.

The project to build two additional reactors at the Temelín nuclear power plant has been acknowledged by Czech government leaders as one that will create a decades-long cooperation with not only the company awarded the contract but, more importantly, the country from which it originates. For all intents and purposes, and despite Toshiba's 77 percent ownership, this will mean the United States in Westinghouse's case.

Since the tender was announced and Westinghouse confirmed its interest, U.S. diplomats and politicians visiting the Czech Republic or meeting with Czech leaders abroad have repeated their support and hope for a winning bid from Westinghouse. Most recently, on June 2, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mentioned the project while announcing an agreement to renegotiate an investment treaty with the Czech Republic. (See story, Page A9)

"Over the past year, we have launched an Economic and Commercial Dialogue, signed a joint declaration on Civil Nuclear Cooperation and began technical research and development discussions with the Department of Energy," Clinton said, adding that the United States now has "an opportunity to expand [its] commercial relationship" with the Czech Republic through Temelín and create thousands of jobs in both countries.

But the tie with Japan is certainly an advantage, Bartuška said, even in the wake of the recent tragedies at Fukushima.

"It's a choice between Russia, France or the U.S. with Japan on their side," he said. "Japan is a country that is seen as very advanced and respected in this country. Having ties with Japan definitely doesn't hurt."

The Czechs, both citizens and their government, have not let Fukushima turn their opinions on nuclear power, and neither will it for Japanese industry, he added.

A reaction on par with the Germans has "definitely not" been a possibility in the Czech Republic, where Japanese companies are still trusted, he said.

Originally founded in 1886, Westinghouse has been one of the longest-lasting and most active U.S. companies, beginning with technologies created by Nikola Tesla and later creating innovations as diverse as the first electric locomotive, the continuous-filament tungsten light bulb, the ground radar used at Pearl Harbor and radar for planes used in World War II. In 1952, Westinghouse refined the first zirconium used for nuclear reactor rods, and in 1958 the company built the first commercial nuclear power plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. After merging with CBS in 1995, the CBS Corporation sold the nuclear power business, which is named Westinghouse Electric Company, to its first foreign owner, British Nuclear Fuels, in 1999. In 2006, British Nuclear Fuels sold Westinghouse to Toshiba, The Shaw Group and IHI.

Claire Compton can be reached at
ccompton@praguepost.com