The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Friday that Westinghouse laid off 25 workers and offered early retirement to another 152.
Compared to its workforce of 14,000, the job cuts at the Toshiba subsidiary are small, but they nonetheless reflect the challenges facing the nuclear industry. Specifically, a Westinghouse spokesman told the newspaper that a number of reactor owners have put off upgrades until federal regulators iron out the safety enhancements they will be required to make under regulations written in response to the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan. The global economy has also contributed to project delays.
Based in Cranberry Township, Pa., Westinghouse provides fuel fabrication, instrumentation and control and maintenance services for nuclear plants in the U.S. and abroad, in addition to its generation III+ AP1000 reactor design. Domestically, nearly half of the country’s operating commercial reactors use Westinghouse pressurized water reactor designs.