Westinghouse Electric Company has signed a contract to power one of the largest boiling water reactor (BWR) utilities in the United States.
Westinghouse will supply nuclear fuel to the utility’s BWR, allowing for emissions-free operations while also potentially lowering costs. BWRs create electrical power by using a core reactor vessel to create pressurized steam which then turns a turbine generator. This move marks the re-entry of Westinghouse into the U.S. BWR fuel market for the first time since 2016.
The company’s TRITON11 BWR fuel is able to decrease fuel cycle costs by up to $4 million per cycle, according to Westinghouse. The electric company previously supplied its Optima2 fuel to U.S. utilities, so the contract’s inclusion of TRITON11 builds on the existing BWR fuel and engineering services partnership between the two companies.
“We are very pleased to strengthen further our long-standing partnership with U.S. utilities and to bring back the most advanced BWR fuel to America’s reactors,” said Tarik Choho, president of nuclear fuel at Westinghouse. “We are confident this milestone will leverage the successful performance we have had with our European customers in the BWR market so far.”
According to the IEA, nuclear power needs to double between 2020 and 2050 to achieve global net-zero emissions goals.
Westinghouse has been a key player in driving nuclear power growth, supplying more than half of the global nuclear-installed base, which includes a capacity of about 190,000 carbon-free megawatts of electricity. The company recently teamed up with Energoatom in Ukraine, signing an agreement to establish a small modular reactor (SMR) and helping the country in its goal of reaching a carbon-neutral energy sector by 2050. Earlier this year, Westinghouse initiated the process of establishing an SMR in the U.S. as well.
The company also maintains its own emissions reduction targets. It has worked to decrease its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 27% since 2019 and aims to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The Department of Energy said that nuclear energy currently produces about half of the country’s carbon-free energy. Earlier this year, the DOE granted more than $22 million for 10 nuclear energy projects, working to further increase the presence of the clean energy source.
