SPX Corp. has announced that its process equipment business has received a contract from Westinghouse Electric Co. to design and engineer valves for new nuclear power plants in China. SPX also received an agreement from China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. (SNPTC) to provide training and technical expertise for these plants. These two contracts are valued at USD 13 million. Under these new contracts, SPX will engineer and manufacture specialty valves that will be used in new nuclear power plants. The valves will be a critical component of the AP1000 plants. The valve design fees will be funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy in the amount of USD 2.2 million, which represents 50% of the development costs. The AP1000 design has been selected by utilities in the US to be used in the possible construction of 12 new nuclear power plants to be built within the next 12 years. The design has also received international acceptance within the nuclear power industry. Westinghouse recently signed an agreement with the SNPTC to build four new nuclear power plants in Sanmen in the Zhejiang province and Haiyang in the Shandong province. The first unit will be operational by 2013. SPX will also provide technical support and training for the plants.
