The Westinghouse APX strategy aims to offer a single technology platform for its AP1000 reactors and for its SMR version, the AP300. The idea is for the smaller version to benefit from the experience and licensed technology from the larger units, some of which are already in operation.
Dan Sumner, President and CEO of Westinghouse, said: “We continue to make investments to strengthen our proven APX platform, and our ongoing collaboration with Amentum is expected to accelerate the licensing of the AP300 SMR with the NRC. Separately, our two companies will work together to enhance our engineering and execution capabilities for delivering 1 GW reactors at scale.”
John Heller, CEO of Amentum, said: “Amentum’s expertise spans the full spectrum of the nuclear project lifecycle, accelerating the development and deployment of advanced nuclear solutions, strengthening energy security and powering the growth of AI and other energy critical industries. There is an expanding global market for firm baseload power, and our collaboration with Westinghouse will enable us to help meet that demand.”
The two companies have worked together on a range of nuclear energy projects in the US and Europe and they say that under the most recent agreement, they “will collaborate to obtain regulatory approval for the AP300 SMR by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission”.
Westinghouse, which supplied the world’s first commercial pressurised water reactor in 1957 in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, is one of the world’s largest nuclear services businesses. Last week it filed a draft registration statement for a potential IPO, a listing of its shares.
Its co-owner Cameco says Westinghouse has a pipeline of deployment opportunities for 91 potential AP1000 reactors totalling some 105 GWe across its global markets, including, in the USA, up to 10 units supported through American Nuclear Supply Chain Loans announced by the US Department of Energy earlier this year, with a commercial operation timeframe by the mid-2030s; up to 10 further US units supported through the strategic partnership between Cameco, Brookfield and the US Department of Commerce announced in 2025, for commercial operation by the mid-to-late 2030s; the resumption of the two-unit VC Summer project, for commercial operation by the early-mid 2030s.
The AP300 SMR was unveiled in 2023. Westinghouse said at its launch that it was based on the licensed and operating AP1000 pressurised light water technology, including “major equipment, structural components, passive safety, proven fuel and I&C systems”.
It called it the first SMR “based on an Nth-of-a-kind operating plant” and said it hoped to benefit from the design utilising Gen III+ technology which already had regulatory approval in the USA, the UK and China as well as being in compliance with European Utility Requirements.
