Westinghouse Electric

About Westinghouse Electric

Westinghouse Electric Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 29, 2017. The nuclear power company was owned by Toshiba. Westinghouse had guaranteed fixed price contracts for nuclear plant construction at Plant Vogtle in Georgia and VC Summer in South Carolina. Cost overruns reached billions of dollars. The VC Summer project was abandoned after 9 billion in spending. Toshiba took a 6 billion write-down. Westinghouse was acquired by Brookfield Business Partners for 4.6 billion in 2018. The bankruptcy highlighted the challenges of nuclear construction in the US. The Vogtle project continued but at greatly increased costs, eventually reaching over 30 billion. The case demonstrates how fixed price construction contracts can create catastrophic financial risk.