Curtiss-Wright Corp.said that it has received orders from Westinghouse Electric Co. to provide four generation II reactor coolant pumps and pump seals supporting the completion of Unit 2 of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Watts Bar nuclear power plant as well as long lead materials for drive rods for Units 1 and 2. Curtiss-Wright’s Electro-Mechanical Corp. (CW-EMD), part of its Flow Control segment, will engineer and manufacture the pumps, seals and drive rods at its Cheswick, PA, facility.
“We are very pleased to be a part of this major project, which is a strong signal that nuclear power will be a major player in meeting the growing demand for nuclear power in the U.S.,” said Curtiss-Wright Chairman and CEO Martin R. Benante.
Unit 1 has been operating for more than 10 years. Watts Bar Unit 2 is about 60% complete. In August 2007, TVA’s board of directors approved a five-year, $2.5 billion plan to finish the unfinished unit.
The plan to complete Watts Bar Unit 2 is expected to last 54 months, with the reactor scheduled to enter commercial operation in early 2012. It would be the 105th nuclear power reactor in the United States. Westinghouse was the original supplier of the two Watts Bar reactors and CW-EMD was the original supplier of the reactor cooling pumps.
