Collaboration also expected to accelerate licensing of AP300 SMR with Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Westinghouse Electric Company and Amentum have entered into a series of agreements supporting a technology platform which uses a common engineering platform for Westinghouse’s AP1000 and AP300 nuclear power plants.
Westinghouse said that by building the smaller AP300 small modular reactors (SMRs) around technology already proven in the large-scale AP1000, it hopes to streamline development, simplify future deployments and reduce the complexity of bringing new reactors to market.
Unlike many SMR developers pursuing entirely new reactor designs, Westinghouse has based the AP300 on the same core technology used in its AP1000 reactor. The shared platform – called the APX technology platform –extends across engineering, major components, fuel design, licensing strategies and parts of the supply chain.
That common approach could make it easier to deploy both reactor types without creating separate industrial ecosystems. Utilities could also benefit from technology that builds on an existing commercial reactor instead of an entirely new design.
Westinghouse said its collaboration with Amentum, the US-based engineering company, is expected to accelerate the licensing of the AP300 SMR with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Separately, the two companies will work together to improve their engineering and execution capabilities for delivering AP1000 units at scale.
“The APX strategy offers the grid-scale, commercially available AP1000 reactor for near-term global fleet deployments, while developing the AP300 SMR to address additional market segments with smaller energy requirements,” Westinghouse said.
There are six AP1000 reactors in commercial operation worldwide. Four units operate in China – two at the Sanmen nuclear power station and two at the Haiyang nuclear power station. Two units operate in the US at the Vogtle nuclear power station in Georgia, where Vogtle-3 began commercial operation in July 2023 and Voglte-4 in April 2024.
Meeting Electricity Demand From AI
John Heller, Amentum’s chief executive officer, said the company supports nuclear projects across the entire project lifecycle and expects demand for firm baseload power to continue growing.
“There is an expanding global market for firm baseload power,” Heller said. He added that the collaboration with Westinghouse will help address electricity demand from AI and other energy-intensive industries.
The companies have worked together on nuclear projects for years, including power generation and decommissioning programmes in the US, the UK, Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania and South Africa.
Last year the US government and Westinghouse struck an $80bn (€69bn) deal to build a fleet of new AP1000 nuclear reactors across the US, as Washington tries to quadruple its nuclear capacity by 2050.
Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2017, primarily due to massive cost overruns and delays in building the Vogtle reactors. The bankruptcy severely impacted its parent company, Toshiba, which ultimately sold Westinghouse to Canada-based Brookfield Asset Management in 2018.
The two Vogtle plants were the last two commercial nuclear reactors built in the US.
There are six AP1000 reactors in commercial operation worldwide, including two at Sanmen, China. Courtesy Westinghouse.
