Exactly how does Westinghouse get contracts to build reactors outside the U.S.?

Well, helping arrange guaranteed loans from the U.S. Export-Import Bank certainly helps, but other companies can perhaps do that as well.

But Westinghouse may have other means, and they may not relate solely to its expertise in designing and building nuclear reactors.

Last Spring, the Czech Republic’s leading newspaper, MF DNES, ran a series of articles on a scandal involving Westinghouse’s bidding on various parts of the Temelin reactor. You didn’t see a word about these front-page articles on CBS-News (owned by Westinghouse), or any other U.S. news outlet. The following chronology is taken from rough translations of the DNES articles.

On May 9, 1996, DNES reported that the bidding for a critical instrumentation and control system for Temelin [this is a key Western addition to the Soviet-designed complex] was done incorrectly. In a first round of bidding, Westinghouse bid $21.8 million, while Electricite de France bid $16.2 million. These bids were supposed to be kept secret. Despite its own rules, CEZ, the Czech utility, decided to solicit a second set of bids. This time, Westinghouse bid only $14.2 million, while EdF kept to its original bid. Westinghouse got the contract. The question is whether Westinghouse knew of EdF’s bid, and thus modified its own bid. An internal audit of the bidding process stated, according to DNES, "The protocols for negotiations do not contain any reasons that led to such a decision [to organize an additional step of the bidding], although such a procedure is very unusual and does not follow the rules for international biddings."

Two days later, DNES reported on another suspect bid. This time, Westinghouse had underbid its competitors in a contract for nuclear fuel for Temelin. When the first round of bidding was completed, Westinghouse had offered $22.6 million, Siemens had bid $36 million and Framatome had bid $34.5 million. Again, an unusual second round of bidding was held. The other companies held to their bids, while Westinghouse upped its bid to $33.6 million, and won the contract. Said a CEZ internal audit, "such an increase is hardly to be explained reasonably and according to TCT’s [Temelin Control Team] opinion, it may be linked with the disclosure of a business secret with negative impact for CEZ."

The scandal moved on, to accusations of bribery by a Westinghouse employee and slander against a CEZ director who voted against Westinghouse contracts. Details of an investigation into these allegations remain secret, at the order of the CEZ Board of Directors, whose members include the wife of Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus. Meanwhile, the Czech police mounted their own investigation of the charges, but have been unable to obtain any indictments.

Similar allegations helped end a Westinghouse nuclear project in the Philippines, following that country’s revolt against the corrupt Marcos government.

Westinghouse is the globe’s largest manufacturer of nuclear reactors and it plays a major role in servicing reactors and in providing nuclear fuel to reactors. Recently, it has decided to pay more attention to its growing and more glamorous media presence, which includes CBS-TV, and TV and radio stations across the nation. Indeed, Westinghouse may either sell or let its industrial power division fend for itself. Probably only one company, Siemens of Germany—which is also heavily involved in the Eastern European reactor business---is large enough to consider buying the power division.

Westinghouse has been sued by numerous U.S. nuclear utilities for the failure of steam generators supplied by the company, but most suits have been settled out-of-court, and information about them has been slim. The Prairie Island Coalition was able to successfully intervene in one such suit, involving Northern States Power and Westinghouse, and has managed to accumulate some documentation about Westinghouse and its steam generators.

Most recently, Westinghouse has been trying to sell the NRC on its "advanced" AP-600 reactor design, which is intended to use "passive" cooling in an effort to create a "meltdown-proof" reactor. But the NRC has not been convinced, and recently ordered Westinghouse to include containment core spray capability in the event the passive cooling efforts fail. How this ruling will affect the design, and its cost, is not yet clear.

What is clear is that to send a message to Westinghouse, one needs to send a message to CBS: the major consumer-oriented product owned by the company. So turn off CBS, and turn off nuclear power.