Fluor, Partners End Bid for Nuclear Unit

A business consortium that was negotiating to acquire the nuclear division of Westinghouse Electric Corp. has come undone, leaving Irvine-based Fluor Corp.’s future role in the process uncertain.

Fluor was a member of the consortium, one of two groups that had been in negotiations to acquire the Westinghouse unit that operates the Savannah River Site nuclear weapons plant in South Carolina.

But Fluor’s partners both were French corporations, and Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse has said that it would sell its military and government contracting operations only to a U.S. company.

A Fluor spokeswoman said Wednesday that the company does not comment “on speculation” about the giant engineering and construction service firm’s potential acquisitions.

However, a spokeswoman for one of Fluor’s French partners, nuclear industry contractor Framatome, said Wednesday that “our interest ended” when Westinghouse said it would sell only to a U.S. firm.

The other partnership reportedly negotiating with Westinghouse also includes a foreign member--nuclear conglomerate BNFL of Great Britain--along with Boise, Idaho-based engineering company Morrison Knudsen.

Morrison Knudsen declined to comment Wednesday.