As Mitsubishi Heavy Industries puts its pursuit of a license for the APWR on hold, the company announced it plans to lay off 48 at its engineering center in Charlotte, N.C.
The Charlotte Business Journal reported Thursday that the layoffs will reduce the staff at the Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems office that opened last year by about half. Its remaining employees will shift their focus to nuclear services and components.
Earlier this month, MHI announced it would delay further work on the design control document for the APWR by several years, citing a shift in focus to restarting reactors in Japan. The decision prompted Luminant to suspend its combined license application to build two of the 1,620 megawatt reactors at the Comanche Peak plant in Texas. In April, Dominion chose GE-Hitachi's ESBWR over the APWR as the preferred design for a new reactor at its North Anna plant in Virginia.