Fluor Reportedly Seeking Units of Westinghouse

Westinghouse Electric Co. is in talks with several groups--one that includes Irvine-based Fluor Corp.--to sell its nuclear and government contracting divisions.

The deal could be controversial because both of the groups involved in the negotiations include foreign companies and the Westinghouse operations include a nuclear fuels plant near Columbia, S.C., and the federal government’s Savannah River Site nuclear weapons complex.

Officials at Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse declined to comment. “We are in talks with potential buyers, and all buyers we are in talks with we have confidentiality agreements with,” Westinghouse spokeswoman Rose Cotton said.

But The State newspaper in Columbia reported that one of the partnerships includes French-owned nuclear giants Framatome and Cogema, along with Fluor Daniel, the chief operating unit of Fluor Corp.

Fluor Daniel spokeswoman Lisa Boyette said the company would not comment.

Fluor has been actively pursuing government contracts in the last year. Additionally, the company has long sought to become the major player in the nuclear cleanup industry.

It now manages the $3-billion cleanup of the nuclear processing plant in Fernald, Ohio, and the $5-billion contract to clean up the heavily polluted nuclear weapons processing facility at Hanford, Wash.

Fluor Daniel outbid a consortium that included Westinghouse last year for the Hanford contract. This year, Fluor was fined $140,000 by federal regulators for repeated safety violations by two of the subcontractors that Fluor inherited when it took over the cleanup.

The other partnership reportedly seeking the Westinghouse units includes nuclear conglomerate BNFL of Great Britain and Morrison Knudsen, an engineering company headquartered in Boise, Idaho.