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.'"

Comments

Thank you, Greenpeace

[mi]

If not for the hysterical campaigns against nuclear energy, we would not be having this awful dependency on oil and other grossly unhealthy fossil fuels...

It seriously set the nuclear power industry back, which is a shame. Old plants continue to operate, but new ones are very slow to appear. Safe and non-polluting technologies were available for decades and we are wising up to using them only now.

Re:Thank you, Greenpeace

[mi]

Nuclear is currently used primarily for non transport energy so would have near zero impact on our oil

Electrical heating, electrical rail road engines, electrical cars would've made far more economic sense if electricity was as cheap and abundant as nuclear power can make it.

You need to include all costs for an accurate comparision, this site includes all costs

That's the point. Greenpeace's et al.'s passionate protests make the nuclear power's cost much higher financially. Even worse -- politically it was prohibitively expensive for decades.

Now that Chinese (no more willing to depend on foreign fuel suppliers, than us) are about to build dozens of new nuclear plants (Toshiba's main motivation for this purchase), the world is suddenly reconsidering...

Re:Thank you, Greenpeace

[mi]

If nuclear plants were truly low cost, they would be getting built without government subsidies.

I wonder, then, why do Chinese plan to build dozens of nuclear plants by 2020? Do they know something, you don't?

Perhaps, the main burden preventing new plants in the US is the unsurmountable amounts of red-tape imposed by the Greenpeace-influenced electorate and politicians? Coal-firing plants, meanwhile, are getting exemption from environmental regulations -- because someone has to keep the lights on and nuclear remains an anathema. (Coal, I guess, reminds people of stoves and steamships of the "good old" era.)

As for having effect on the oil itself, energy is largely a commodity. Less demand in one area increases supply in the others. See other posts in this thread.

Brakes

[grahammm]

I have never heard of Westinghouse blenders or TVs. To me the name Westinghouse means railway brake systems.

Re:Not necessarily

[rolfwind]

There's a campaign to ban energy-wasteful technology [banthebulb.org] where cheaper, superior alternatives exist. In the unlikely event that the campaign achieves a meaningful result, America could dispose of several existing power stations without the need for nuclear stations to replace them.

I find that capitalism is better than banning lightbulb:/

For instance, I use CFL (compact fluorescent light bulbs) regularly, but especially in the hot summer where the extra heat generated from traditional light-bulbs in a fully lighted house is like putting on a 1500+ watt electric heater and then wondering why the AC has to be cranked so high (and expensively).

But traditionally lightbulbs can't be replaced - they're nice in an otherwise small underheated bathroom and less expensive than an oilheater :-D (plus one doesn't forget to turn the lights off as much).

Or in uses such as the oven, fridge, etcetera where the plastic ballast of a CFL doesn't have a chance....

Refrigerators - Nuclear Reactors... Same thing

[temojen]

Only backwards.

Re:Does this mean...

[kesuki]

there Are nuclear powered batteries, that provide 10+ years of continuous power for devices such as pacemakers. The amount of radioactive materials are so slight, that the simple battery casing provides an effective shield meaning that no more radiation thanone would recieve from normal background rads will escape it. however, such batteries are a far cry from providing enough power for a laptop.

as far as generating electricity from radioactive materials goes there are two methodologies involved a. the tendandcy of silicon to 'produce' electrcial charge when exposed to the right ffrequencies of radiation. and b. the use of radioactive waste to produce 'heat' to make steam to power an electrical turbine. the former is the type of technology used in 'new' pacemakers etc, the latter is some cold war era technology, primarilly researched by the russians. nuclear decay batteries have been powering satelites etc for decades, however based on the 'facts' for the linked story it seems absurd at best. 12 miles from food processing? does he not realize that virtually every egg and piece of poultry in the Us is irradiated to 'sterilize' it? does he not realize UV lights are installed at the entry points to any US based food manufacturor, to allow for 'bacterial sterilization' to prevent contamination? yes, Uv light is 'radiation' too ;) and it's been known to cause skin cancer too, never mind that millions of people flock to locations where they can bask in the stuff like 'beaches' etc.