Westinghouse Wins Contract to Dismantle the Reactor Vessel Internals at the Jose Cabrera Nuclear Power Station in Spain

PITTSBURGH, July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Westinghouse Electric Company has been awarded a contract by Enresa (Empresa Nacional de Residuos Radiactivos) to dismantle the reactor vessel (RV) internals at the Jose Cabrera Nuclear Power Station (also known as Zorita), located in Almonacid de Zorita, 43 miles east of Madrid, Spain.

The contract covers dismantling and segmentation of the reactor vessel internals, including the up-front engineering studies. It also includes plant modifications, equipment supply, and loading of primary and secondary waste, respectively, into multipurpose canisters for the activated material, and into dedicated containers for low- and intermediate-level waste. Westinghouse will be the lead contractor, and MONLAIN will be its main subcontractor. The project began in June 2010 and is expected to take 31 months to complete.

Zorita, a 142 MWe Westinghouse pressurized water reactor (PWR) operated by Gas Natural Fenosa, was closed by ministerial order in April 2006, after 38 years in operation. In February 2010 Gas Natural Fenosa transferred the plant's ownership to Enresa, the Spanish agency responsible for radioactive waste management and nuclear plant decommissioning. Zorita will become the second commercial nuclear reactor (after Vandellos Unit 1) to be dismantled in Spain.

"Westinghouse is proud to have been selected by Enresa to dismantle the reactor vessel internals of the first PWR built in Spain," said Jose Emeterio Gutierrez, Westinghouse managing director, Southern Europe. "We have global decommissioning and dismantling experience and expertise, and local experts who are eager to carry out this project in a manner that exceeds our customer's expectations."

In March 2010, Westinghouse announced that it had been awarded a contract by EDF-CIDEN (Engineering Center for Dismantling and the Environment) to provide reactor vessel (RV) dismantling services for the Chooz A nuclear reactor, the first pressurized water reactor (PWR) in France to be fully dismantled.  The company also has retired reactor internals segmentation projects under way at Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden and at Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in Finland.

Westinghouse Electric Company, a group company of Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502), is the world's pioneering nuclear power company and is a leading supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies to utilities throughout the world. Westinghouse supplied the world's first commercial PWR in 1957 in Shippingport, Pennsylvania (USA). Today, Westinghouse technology is the basis for more than 40 percent of the world's operating nuclear plants, including 60 percent of those in the United States.  Information about Westinghouse Electric Company and the AP1000™ nuclear power plant is available on the company's web site at www.westinghousenuclear.com.

SOURCE Westinghouse Electric Company

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