GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) announced Tuesday that it intends to target a new segment by offering Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) refueling services, opening the company to a customer base of roughly two-thirds of the world’s nuclear reactors.
“We have viewed the PWR services segment as one in need of additional choices for utilities for some time,” said GEH President and CEO Caroline Reda. “We look forward to bringing to PWR operators the same level of project management expertise and technical rigor that we have brought to (Boiling Water Reactor) BWR customers for more than five decades.”
GEH, which was created in 2007 as part of a global nuclear alliance, manufactured equipment used in more than 60 boiling water reactors around the world and is partly formed from the company that connected America’s first nuclear reactor to a commercial electricity grid in 1957.
According to GEH’s announcement, the company has already entered into an agreement with Exelon Generation to manage their PWR refueling work. A coup for GEH, this mean that their entrance into the industry segment will be working with the U.S.’s largest nuclear plant operator. GEH’s project team – which brings extensive experience in project management, planning, supervision and fuel movement for PWR servicing, among other specialties – recently attended training exercises at an Exelon facility.
