Westinghouse, SCE&G in Agreement for Two AP1000 Nuclear Plants

- Second U.S. EPC Contract In Six Weeks - Commercial operation to begin in 2016

PITTSBURGH, May 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Westinghouse Electric Company today announced that it and its partner The Shaw Group Inc.'s (NYSE:SGR) Power Group have signed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract (EPC) with South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G), principal subsidiary of SCANA Corporation (NYSE:SCG), and Santee Cooper, a state-owned electric and water utility in South Carolina, to provide two Westinghouse AP1000(TM) nuclear power units at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, S.C.

Steve Tritch, Westinghouse president and CEO, said the EPC contract, the second to be signed by Westinghouse in the last six weeks, shows that nuclear power is now fully accepted as a cost-competitive, clean and highly safe source of baseload generation.

"We congratulate South Carolina Electric & Gas and Santee Cooper for taking a forward-looking and long-term approach to both electricity generation and energy independence," he said. "We at Westinghouse are also proud that our technology has again been selected, and we look forward to taking a leadership role, along with our valued customers and partners, in the worldwide nuclear renaissance. We pledge to work diligently with our customers to provide these plants in a timely and efficient manner and to see that they are exceptionally well maintained and operated."

In March, SCE&G and Santee Cooper, a state-owned electric and water utility in South Carolina, submitted an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a combined construction and operating license (COL). Once approved, the COL would authorize the companies to build and operate up to two new nuclear reactors at the utilities' existing V.C. Summer Nuclear Station site in Jenkinsville, S.C.

In early April Westinghouse signed an EPC with Georgia Power to provide two plants at the Vogtle site near Waynesboro, Ga. Before that, no other contracts to provide new nuclear power plants in the United States had been signed since before 1978.

In July 2007, Westinghouse and Shaw signed contracts to provide four AP1000s in China, where initial work is now underway. Additionally, the AP1000 has been identified as the new plant technology of choice for no less than a total of 10 additional nuclear plants that could be built in the United States.

Westinghouse believes the AP1000 is ideally suited for the worldwide nuclear power marketplace. The AP1000 is:

-- The safest, most advanced, yet proven nuclear power plant currently
available in the worldwide marketplace (conservative probabilistic risk
assessment (PRA): core damage frequency potential at negligible
2.5x10- 7)
-- Based on standard Westinghouse pressurized water reactor (PWR)
technology that has achieved more than 2,500 reactor years of highly
successful operation
-- An 1100MWe design that is ideal for providing baseload generating
capacity
-- Modular in design, promoting ready standardization and high
construction quality
-- Economical to construct and maintain (less concrete and steel and fewer
components and systems mean there is less to install, inspect and
maintain)
-- Designed to promote ease of operation (features most advanced
instrumentation and control (I&C) in the industry)

For more information about the Westinghouse AP1000, visit its Web site at www.ap1000.westinghousenuclear.com.

Westinghouse Electric Company, a group company of Toshiba Corporation, is the world's pioneering nuclear power company and is a leading supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies to utilities throughout the world. Westinghouse supplied the world's first PWR in 1957 in Shippingport, Pa. Today, Westinghouse technology is the basis for approximately one-half of the world's operating nuclear plants, including 60 percent of those in the United States.

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Source: Westinghouse Electric Company

CONTACT: Vaughn Gilbert of Westinghouse Electric Company,
+1-412-374-3896, gilberhv@westinghouse.com

Web site: http://www.westinghousenuclear.com/
http://www.ap1000.westinghousenuclear.com/

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2008-05-27 16:52:15 0371064 PRNEWSWIRE