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Toshiba to Pay $5.4 Billion for Westinghouse
Philip writes "Business electronics firm Toshiba is bidding for 100% control of Westinghouse - famous for making blenders and LCD televisions, but principally in the business of building nuclear reactors. 'By 2020 the market for nuclear power generation is expected to grow 50 percent compared to 2005,' Toshiba CEO Nishida said at a London news conference. 'Toshiba is responding to this challenge by acquiring Westinghouse.'"
I hope everyone realises that the much hyped hydrogen economy of the future is totally dependent on nuclear energy. If I had the money, I'd invest heavily in the companies ivolved in the nuclear industry. Solar, hydro, and wind energy will not be enough to replace oil.
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This concern is not valid considering that Westinghouse is currently owned entirely by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). Also, DOE does not get very involved in the business side of things. This would be an NRC issue.
In the 90s, Westinghouse was split up by Viacom, the owner at that time. The electronics side of the business was sold to Siemens and currently goes under the name Siemens-Westinghouse. All the other divisions of Westinghouse were sold to a variety of companies except for the nuclear division. The nuclear division retained the name Westinghouse Electric Company and was sold to British nuclear fuels.
GE does not own Westinghouse proper. GE owns some of the divisions of Westinghouse when it was split up by Viacom in the 90s. GE is one of the main competitors to Westinghouse Electric Company, the nuclear division which is currently owned by British Nuclear Fuels. The other main competitor is Areva/Framatone out of France.
While Westinghouse may be known for it's every day electronics (elevators, microwaves, TVs) and the Westinghouse Science Award (which is still a pretty cool and pretty geeky achievement) and it's defense contracting (nuclear power), I think it's most important achievement is bringing Tesla's idea of alternating current to the consumer.
This concern is not valid considering that Westinghouse is currently owned entirely by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). Also, DOE does not get very involved in the business side of things. This would be an NRC issue.
Not entirely. Anything related to DoD (not DOE) is not primarily owned by BNFL. When CBS corporation split up the company in 2000, the DoD stiuplated that US based companies must have a controlling share in those divisions.
I'd love to see Toshiba's mini nuclear reactors widely deployed in the U.S., or at the bare minimum looked into with a few test deployments.
They are small, safe, and cost effective.
They are the size of a grain silo, buried 100 feet underground. They are idiot-proof (think of the causes of Chernobyl) because the nuclear reaction only happens while a plate is moving in front of the rods. If the plate stops, the reaction stops. The plate cannot move except intentionally, so the chance of a runaway meltdown approaches zero.
If the U.S. were smart it would take a months budget for the war in Iraq and just buy the technology outright from Toshiba, then deploy them as widely and cheaply as possible.
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That CANDU link is quite interesting
http://canteach.candu.org/library/20000101.pdf
Existing reactors work by using an expensive fuel (enriched uranium) and a cheap moderator (graphite or water).
CANDU's idea is relatively safer. Instead of enriched uranium, CANDU reactors use natural uranium (which is cheap) along with an expensive moderator (heavy water). The design is a bit safer too.
OTOH, heavy water is still a part of the nucleur weapons making process & is export controlled.
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electrical switchgear and turbines, which is part of Siemens... or the historic Westinghouse of air brakes, which is part of Honeywell, through the Allied Signal/Bendix merger... or the Westinghouse of light bulbs and fans, which is some marketer with two tin desks, two telephones, 500 folks with red ties, and containers of Stuff from China arriving daily on docks.
such is the stuff of de-mergers of the US' industrial base in the late 80s and 1990s.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Rotary Steam Engine
Railroad Block Signal
Railroad Air Brakes
AC Power Generation
First Long-distance power transmission
Niagra Falls AC Generation
Steam turbine generators
Light Bulbs
AC Electric Locomotives
First Marine Turbine Engine
Micarta Laminate
Electric kitchen Range
Radios Receivers/Transmitters
Electric Iron
Television Cameras
Televisions
Elevators
Electrostatic Air Cleaners
First Atom Smasher
Radar
Automatic Washing Machine
Electric Clothes drier
X-Ray Machines
Self Defrosting Refridgerator
Electric Rotisserie Grills
Room Air Conditioners
Submarines
Jet Engines
Nuclear Reactors
And on and on and on
My nuke plant puts out about 3400 amps at the New England Grid's 345,000 Volts. I don't know what the resistance is for the lines, but it's pretty damn low.
The outgoing three phase lines have to be kept at a considerable distance from each other (16 feet) meaning that the minimum tower width is 32 feet or so.
If you bring them any closer, you'd have arcing, or you'd need to heavily insulate them.
If you increased the voltage (some places in the US run as high as 750,000 volts), you need to move the lines further apart, or insulate them greatly- not only is this expensive, but it makes them heavier, so you'd need tougher towers, you'd have less margin for ice buildup, etc, etc.
There are numerous reasons why the main grid distribution voltage can't get substantially higher.
Also local lines need to be kept at relatively low voltages to reduce maintanance costs. Again, the higher the voltage, the more prone a line is to arching to nearby grounds. If you run 100,000 volts through a neighborhood line you'd reduce line losses, but you'd have to send tree trimming crews out alot more often, and they'd have to cut trees much further back.
In short, when you decide on a grid voltage for a particular line run, you have to weigh construction costs vs maintanance costs vs material cost vs line losses.
There are numerous factors at play here.
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