Westinghouse clinched multi-billion-dollar nuclear deal with China

Westinghouse Inc. has recently inked a multi-billion-dollar deal with China to build four nuclear reactors for it. The deal has been picked up by the company within three months after its acquisition by the Japanese firm Toshiba Inc. from British Nuclear Fuels. According to the contract, Westinghouse will build four nuclear plants at two locations in China. The state owned State Nuclear power Technology Company of China has selected AP1000 technology in principle to be used in the prospective nuclear plants under the deal. However, the deal required a memorandum of understanding signed by the both countries in order to facilitate the transfer of technology to China. Analysts have argued that the deal will help creating at least 5,500 jobs in the U.S., which in turn help Washington and Beijing to strengthen their relationship, which was evidently deteriorating in recent times. The tender was intensively contended by French and Russian rivals for the bid stretching for two years, which eventually awarded to the Japanese firm. The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed yet. However, experts are evaluating the deal to be somewhere between $5 billion and $8 billion. Toshiba has recently stated that it aims to triple its revenue from nuclear power business. The recent acquisition Westinghouse was strategic as Toshiba wanted desperately to expand its nuclear power business outside saturated Japanese market into China and U.S.