Westinghouse Electric Co., a Canadian-owned company, is at the centre of a geopolitical struggle between the West and Russia for dominance in the global nuclear-power industry.
Westinghouse is among the nuclear industry’s few vertically integrated companies, designing reactors and providing them with nuclear fuel and maintenance services.The U.S. will be looking to Westinghouse to help triple America’s nuclear power capacity by 2050 to meet soaring U.S. power demand and fight climate change.
At some point, Washington is likely to exert pressure on Westinghouse to play a bigger role in the global nuclear-industrial complex, David Olive writes. Westinghouse also stands to gain from an end to Russia’s near-monopoly on nuclear fuel supplies in Eastern Europe.
Countries in the region are seeking alternative fuel suppliers to Russia’s state-owned Rosatom nuclear juggernaut. And Poland last year chose Westinghouse to design its first nuclear power plant, a $27-billion project.
Six years ago, an arm of Toronto fund manager Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. acquired a then troubled Westinghouse and restored its financial viability. In 2022, Westinghouse earned a profit of $590 million on about $5 billion in revenues.
For the rest of this column: https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/why-the-u-s-might-just-set-its-sights-on-canadian-owned-westinghouse-electric/article_344567f6-b181-11ee-8189-03169d712ff8.html