Westinghouse expands European service capabilities

22 January 2010

Westinghouse has opened a pump and motor maintenance and repair centre in Nivelles, Belgium, to serve European nuclear power plant operators.

  

Pump and Motor Centre, Nivelles (Westinghouse)

An artist's impression of the new Nivelles facility

(Image: Westinghouse)
  

In order to ensure the reliability and efficiency of nuclear power plants, reactor coolant pumps and their motors are periodically disassembled and inspected, with repairs conducted if necessary.

 

The €6 million ($8.5 million) workshop, with more than 2000 square metres of manufacturing space, is specifically designed to be a state-of-the-art facility to perform work on radioactively contaminated multiple pumps and motors in parallel. It is equipped with a crane capable of lifting 63 tonnes, large horizontal and vertical lathes, and a dynamic balancing machine capable of handling the largest pump and motor components. The facility will have an annual repair and refurbishment capacity of more than 20 large motors and ten pumps.

 

The workshop will start its activities with the execution of a contract signed with Electricité de France (EdF) to maintain the pumps and motors of the primary circuit of its nuclear power plants in France.

 

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the new facility, Nick Liparulo, senior vice president of Westinghouse Nuclear Services, said: "Our growth here in Nivelles is reflective of both the scope of the global nuclear renaissance and our ongoing commitment to create success for our customers. We see an exciting and long-term future for our industry, our company and for this new maintenance and repair centre."

 

Westinghouse's Nivelles Service Centre in Belgium provides engineering and field services to nuclear power utilities in Europe and worldwide. The Nivelles site incorporates Westinghouse's European Service Centre, a fully-licensed Class 2 nuclear facility supporting our field service efforts at European operating reactors. Westinghouse Electric Belgium employs a multinational workforce of about 140 people.

 

Westinghouse also has a pump and motor maintenance and repair facility at its Nuclear Component Repair Centre (NCRC) in Madison, Pennsylvania, USA.

 

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News