In a video circulated among employees Tuesday, Westinghouse CEO Daniel Roderick announced the company will cut jobs amounting to roughly five percent of its global workforce.
Westinghouse had hired about 5,000 people over the last five years as dozens of new nuclear plants were proposed in the U.S. and abroad. While the company is building its AP1000 reactors at Plant Vogtle, at the V.C. Summer nuclear plant and in China, Roderick cited a weak economy, the accidents at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi and fewer proposed reactors moving into construction as reasons for the reduction, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The 665 positions will come from unfilled openings and from layoffs across the organization, including its Pennsylvania headquarters.
The Pittsburgh Business Times noted that Westinghouse has consolidated its headquarters office space in Cranberry Township, Pa., and reduced its workforce by 200 last May.
Currently employing about 13,000, Westinghouse markets its pressurized water reactors globally. Its designs account for most of the PWRs operating in the U.S., and it has also provided naval reactors for aircraft carriers and submarines. The company's other offerings include fuel services and a small modular reactor currently under development. Westinghouse is majority owned by Toshiba.