On Tuesday, Westinghouse announced that it had reached an agreement with the Trump administration, according to which new nuclear reactors would be built in the United States at a cost of $80 billion. The government also said it had finalized plans for GE Vernova and Hitachi to collaborate to build additional reactors. Unfortunately, at the moment there are practically no details about the deal.
The agreements were apparently concluded during President Trump's trip to Japan. Announcement One of these agreements states that “Japan and various Japanese companies” will invest “up to” $332 billion in energy infrastructure. In particular, we were talking about Westinghouse, GE Vernova and Hitachi. This promises the construction of both large AP1000 reactors and small modular nuclear reactors. The announcement goes on to indicate that many other companies will also receive a portion of this “up to $332 billion,” many of which will go toward core network infrastructure.
Thus, the total amount allocated for nuclear reactors is not stated either in the announcement or anywhere else. At the time of publication, the Department of Energy does not have information about the transaction; Hitachi, GE Vernova and the Hitachi/GE Vernova collaboration websites are also silent on this.
Meanwhile Westinghouse claims that it would be involved in building “at least $80 billion worth of new reactors,” a mixture of AP1000 and AP300 (each named after the MW capacity of the reactor/generator combination). The company says it will “revitalize the nuclear power industrial base.”
