Thank goodness!!! Is B&W still in the biz? Had a suite mate, Dave N. that graduated from NCSU in NE and he went to work for them.
Standard modular design should have been in the first place....much like, and I hate to say it, the Frog's program. The French were smart to do that.
From your link:
The AP1000 has 50 percent fewer valves, 83 percent less piping, 87 percent less control cable, 35 percent fewer pumps and 50 percent less seismic building volume than a similarly sized conventional plant. These reductions in equipment and bulk quantities lead to major savings in plant costs and construction schedules.
That will help a whole lot with cost/kW. BTW, I'm a little confused....what is a MWe? Megawatt=====??????
Also, I've always really liked Westinghouse's residential/industrial electrical components, not to mention their residential appliances. Good quality and reliable service...always.
MWe = Megawatt Electric. That is, one million watts of electrical power delivered to the grid.
That's in contrast to 1 Mwt, which is one million watts thermal, a million watts of heat. At 45% efficiency, it takes 2.22 Mwt to generate 1.0 Mwe.
(steely)
B&W was bought by Framatome in the early 1990's. They combined with Siemen's nuclear business to form Areva. The US HQ is in the old B&W nuclear offices in Lynchburg, VA.
MWe = MegaWatt electric, the electrical output of the plant.