Morrison Knudsen Corp. and British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. agreed Friday to buy CBS Corp.’s Westinghouse nuclear and government contracting units for $1.2 billion in cash and assumed liabilities.
Boise, Idaho-based engineering firm Morrison Knudsen will take a 60 percent stake and state-owned BNFL, the U.K.’s largest nuclear fuel processor, will own the rest. The companies will pay $238 million in cash and assume liabilities and obligations of the units.
By linking with BNFL, Morrison Knudsen combines its design and construction expertise with BNFL’s experience in handling nuclear materials. The acquisition would provide a foothold in China’s nuclear power market, worth $60 billion a year.
Westinghouse has 24,000 employees at the nuclear business, which makes and services equipment for nuclear power plants, and the contracting business, which mainly cleans up nuclear waste at U.S. military and government sites.
The sale would complete the year-long dismantling of Westinghouse, which was transformed into a media company when it was renamed CBS and relocated to New York from Pittsburgh in December.
Westinghouse, founded 112 years ago as a maker of locomotive air brakes, built 48 of the 105 nuclear power plants operating in the U.S. and 31 plants overseas. It designed an additional 81 plants through licensing agreements. While nuclear power is becoming obsolete in the U.S., many developing nations are building nuclear plants.
