Westinghouse Files for Bankruptcy, in Blow to Nuclear Power

416 点作者 mathoff大约 8 年前

29 条评论

The real concern here is making sure the existing nuclear plants have a clear glide slope toward end-of-life. Nuclear power is an extremely tight community. On the nuclear carrier I was on (powered by Westinghouse plants), there was a valve (a valve!) malfunctioning and the tech rep flown out from the company took one look at it and said "This bit's in backward". "How do you know?" "I designed it". Which means the same guy had been working on that system for 30 years.The people working for this company are a matter of national security. I sure hope Secretary Mattis understands that.This, also, by the way, is a great illustration of Elon Musk's contention that these technologies don't just keep working. Brilliant, competent engineers and scientists have to invest themselves in making them work.

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freehunter大约 8 年前

I find the headline weird, "a blow to nuclear power". I feel like nuclear power is possibly the most attacked form of energy that exists, and that includes coal and petroleum, both of which are still heavily used despite any public outcry. Westinghouse has made some bad deals, sure, but the real "blow to nuclear power" has been the massive refusal by both citizens and governments to build new plants, and the few notable failures by plant operators to maintain safe operation.Of course the company that builds nuclear plants can't succeed if new plants aren't being built. Westinghouse going under isn't going to destroy nuclear power, nuclear power was already dead.

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barkingcat大约 8 年前

There was massive financial fraud at Westinghouse. Even though the nuclear industry is in a downturn, the troubles at Westinghouse are self inflicted - Toshiba bought them, but found out almost all of the unit's profits are misreported, leading to them spending money on "nothing" basically. The unit earned no money and was threatening to sink Toshiba the entire keiretsu. This is Toshiba trying to save itself by closing down the tide of red.The source of the troubles was Westinghouse's purchase of CB&I Stone & Webster, and it spun out of control.

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thewhitetulip大约 8 年前

As a Nikola Tesla fan, just a honorary mention, Westinghouse corporation is (one of) the (main) reason why we have AC. When nobody believed in Tesla, George did, even after the bullying by the Edison camp, the smear campaigns. I have read that per watt of AC current, Nikola Tesla was supposed to get some $2.3, but Westinghouse told Tesla that he would be bankrupt if Tesla was to be given that Royalty, the legend has it that Telsa tore the contract saying something like this, "You believed in me when the world didn't, I don't want the money", even if he didn't say something fancy during this time, but the act in itself, if it really happened, is touching. I nearly cried when I read it in a book a long long time ago.It is sad to see that a energy giant is going bankrupt. End of an era for a Tesla fan, the company who believed in Tesla is going bankrupt.

maxfurman大约 8 年前

This is terrible news. Nuclear power, while not perfect, is one of the best alternatives we have to carbon-emitting power plants. If there are no companies left to build them, the already impossible task of fighting climate change will get that much harder.

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moomin大约 8 年前

A difficulty I've always had with nuclear power is the problem of clean-up. I'm not scaremongering and saying it's impossible, but it is inarguably expensive. Having a large amount of costs after all the revenue has gone away is a huge regulatory red flag: it's simpler to just structure things so that you won't have to pay.This problem applies to mining as well, but very little mining has to occur near residential areas.

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erikig大约 8 年前

Chapter 11 bankruptcy might be a the best thing for a critical company like Westinghouse. Unlike Chapter 7 the operations continue but the entity gets debt relief."In Chapter 11, in most instances the debtor remains in control of its business operations as a debtor in possession, and is subject to the oversight and jurisdiction of the court." [1][1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_11,_Title_11,_United_States_Code" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_11,_Title_11,_United_S...</a>

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nabla9大约 8 年前

Westinghouse had severe technical problems with AP1000 and it's not alone. French nuclear reactor builder Areva was restructured after they could not get their new EPR reactors ready on time. Their flagship project Olkiluoto 3 is nine years late and several billions of euros over budget.Chinese are building reactors as fast as they can. They are buying reactors designs from all main manufacturers. There are 21 reactors under construction and they are three years late on average because manufacturers can't get these next generation reactors ready.Nuclear reactors being constantly late and exceeding their budgets is not new. This was true in 60's and 70's and it's true now.

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jartelt大约 8 年前

The nuclear industry was already having big issues, so I do not see this bankruptcy changing things much. The decline of nuclear wasn't even related to safety concerns, which I believe are largely exaggerated. Currently operating nuclear plants are losing money and needed to be bailed out in Illinois and New York because they cannot produce power for a low enough price. With that in mind, who wants to spend >$1B to build a new nuclear plant that will likely take >10 years to get permitted and built? For the industry to grow, there needs to be a big change in technology to decrease the capital costs needed to build plants and to decrease plant operating costs. If you cost more than a natural gas plant, you are not going to have much luck in today's market.

Stratoscope大约 8 年前

When I was a kid, my most favorite plastic model kit was the Westinghouse Atomic Power Plant. It was awesome!<a href="http://www.oldmodelkits.com/index.php?detail=15662" rel="nofollow">http://www.oldmodelkits.com/index.php?detail=15662</a>You can even buy one today for the low price of $1250:<a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/262902080871" rel="nofollow">http://www.ebay.com/itm/262902080871</a>

mathattack大约 8 年前

Bankruptcy doesn't mean closure. Someone will bring them out of bankruptcy, but a lot of their existing creditors (and their existing owner) will get stiffed along the way. Most airlines that went backrupt didn't disappear, but their owners took a haircut.

caminante大约 8 年前

Without getting into mismanagement or environmental concerns, nuclear's economics continue to worsen.1. The supply of nuclear expertise and trained professionals is shrinking. Thus, nuclear EPC + O&M goes up. This article cites this factor at least 3x in different paragraphs. Though, that's great news for current nukes!2. LCOE (EPC + O&M) forecasts show nuclear on par with substitutes. I'm not taking on the ESG risks of nuclear to achieve price parity.

mikikian大约 8 年前

Here's the declaration by Lisa J. Donahue, Managing Director and the Leader of the Global Turnaround and Restructuring Group at AlixPartners LLC, describing the circumstances leading up to the bankruptcy [1].[1] <a href="https://pdf.inforuptcy.com/pacer/nysbke/273388/dockets/4/1-C72B395A-148B-11E7-8158-F0759EBC7B2E" rel="nofollow">https://pdf.inforuptcy.com/pacer/nysbke/273388/dockets/4/1-C...</a>

DrNuke大约 8 年前

West badly needs not surrendering Gen IV development & commercialisation to Russia and China, for geopolitics reasons and Pu stockpile re-use. Westinghouse is a chip here, a prestigious one for sure, and Gov should step in. Time to drop the energy free-market drivel and act as a superpower in a world that is dangerously going towards aggressive local superpowers. Risk! game scenarios again.

wonderous大约 8 年前

@Dang (HN "meta" Q&A)Has HN ever looked into clustering news using Google News to do it?Reason I ask is how HN's de-dup filter works is puzzling to me and related stories would likely be useful to pool comments/de-dup/etc on a single news event.Example of dups, clusters, themes on HN on this event: <a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?query=westinghouse&sort=byDate&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?query=westinghouse&sort=byDate&prefi...</a>Google News cluster: <a href="https://news.google.com/news/m/more?ncl=dGww1eRZGqsOScMMCg3U3tq_4ODEM&authuser=0&ned=us&topic=b" rel="nofollow">https://news.google.com/news/m/more?ncl=dGww1eRZGqsOScMMCg3U...</a>

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nbanks大约 8 年前

The two new Westinghouse Vogtle pants are too expensive, at $14 billion for 2.5GW of power. If you purchased $14 billion of Tesla powerpacks, you could get 35GWh of storage--enough storage to supply 2.5GW of power for 14 hours....

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squozzer大约 8 年前

Keep in mind this financial debacle occurred in spite of at least one state's electricity customers paying for nuclear plant construction in advance:<a href="http://www.ajc.com/business/psc-approves-georgia-power-rate-increase/nTuA6IAdHMNWnca6hgkPKN/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ajc.com/business/psc-approves-georgia-power-rate-...</a>"January 2013: $1.05, third part of the three-tiered rate increase; 31-cent increase for energy-efficiency programs; 85-cent increase for Plant VogtleNote: Figures are amounts added or reduced on a typical monthly bill based on usage of 1,000 kilowatt hours"

ehnto大约 8 年前

There is a fantastic documentary on the namesake of Westinghouse and the company itself. I found it incredibly interesting! They go into topics such as his relationship with other inventors at the time and his perhaps philanthropic relationship with his workers, the different cycles of the company and it's various product pivots.<a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=8BUpF__h-IY" rel="nofollow">https://youtube.com/watch?v=8BUpF__h-IY</a>

jiggliemon大约 8 年前

July 7th, 1888: Tesla Sells A.C. PatentsTesla sells patents for A.C. Polyphase System to George Westinghouse for $25,000 in cash, $50,000 in notes and a royalty of $2.50 per horsepower for each motor.<a href="https://teslauniverse.com/nikola-tesla/timeline/1888-tesla-sells-ac-patents" rel="nofollow">https://teslauniverse.com/nikola-tesla/timeline/1888-tesla-s...</a>Some tangential history regarding Westinghouse for fun.

Animats大约 8 年前

Does this mean the AP-1000 reactor is dead? Several of those are under construction.

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zollidia大约 8 年前

I honestly have nothing to add - most of the points I want to bring up are already discussed in the comments.But to those are actively working in a US Reactor Complex - you're working the dream I hope to achieve one day. Good job.

cpr大约 8 年前

Apropos of nuke subs and carriers, the thing that always blew my mind was learning later in life that they're only fueled once for their working life time...

danans大约 8 年前

Was/Is Westinghouse doing anything with smaller scale reactor technologies (Thorium,etc). If not, does this potentially open a door for those technologies?

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smaili大约 8 年前

Is this the same Westinghouse that produces microwaves?

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seanmcdirmid大约 8 年前

My dad worked for Westinghouse in the late 70s at Hanford. This really feels like an end of an era.

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luckyduck13大约 8 年前

My grandpa worked for Westinghouse as an electrical engineer. This news really bums me out.

brilliantcode大约 8 年前

I believe the nuclear power industry largely started out as a way to justify world's largest nuclear warhead stockpile. I believe it was on a show from Netflix that discussed the history of nuclear power. It worked remarkably well.

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cowardlydragon大约 8 年前

I have no industry wide view, but...All existing nuclear powerplants are shitty Fukushima-style pressurized light water reactors in the US, are they not?I'd have to think this company is an incumbent blocking entry of modern designs. Is this really a bad thing?

anovikov大约 8 年前

Why should we be worried? Nuclear power is a no go for civilized world. It is not insurable. It has well-developed, clean alternatives. Apart from carriers and subs, it has no good applications (it would be also be great to get back to nuclear missile cruisers and ideally even destroyers, but outside of the military, i can't see any use for it at all).