Page 19: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 1971)

Westinghouse, Tenneco Plan To Build

Floating Offshore Nuclear Plants

Artist's concept of the proposed joint Westinghouse-Tenneco facility for the manufacture of floating platform-mounted nuclear power plants for offshore sites. Production flow of the platform-mounted plants is from left to right.

Westinghouse Electric Corpora- tion and Tenneco Inc. have an- nounced plans for jointly building platform-mounted nuclear power plants for offshore installation.

N.W. Freeman, chairman and president of Tenneco, and West- inghouse chairman D.C. Burnham, said the companies intend to build floating nuclear power plants on a production line basis in a $200-mil- lion facility that will bring together the talents of both corporations.

Westinghouse is a pioneer in the development of commercial nu- clear power. Tenneco, a diversi- fied multi-industry company, has been heavily involved in the trans- portation and production of ener- gy for many years through its natural gas pipeline and integrated oil operations. Additionally, a Ten- neco subsidiary, Newport News

Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Com- pany, is the nation's largest ship- builder.

Tenneco and Westinghouse have entered into an initial agreement which calls for the completion of technical and economic studies by year-end 1971. At that time, a pro- posal for the development, design, manufacture and sale of the float- ing power stations will be submit- ted for approval by the boards of directors of both companies.

Provided that construction of the unique manufacturing facility could begin in mid-1972 at a site yet to be determined, it is antici- pated that the first completed plat- form atomic power plant would be ready for delivery in 1979. The fa- cility would have the capacity to build four 1,200,000-kilowatt nu- clear plants a year once full pro- duction is achieved and could em- ploy more than 8,000 people at that time.

In heavily populated seaboard areas, the platform-mounted nu- clear plant provides a way to meet man's increasing power require- ments with a minimum effect on his environment, Mr. Burnham ex- plained. For those areas, the proj- ect would: (1) meet the needs of utilities in finding sites for future nuclear power plants economically close to load centers; (2) reduce the threat of future power short- ages by shortening construction time by one to two years; (3) re- duce lead time for regulatory pro- cedures by standardizing plant design; (4) reduce concentrated thermal effects of plant operation because of the vastness of the sea, and (5) reduce utility land acqui- sition costs. Some utilities now buy future plant sites as much as 10 years in advance of construc- tion schedules.

The construction facility would be equipped to install standardized components weighing as much as 600 tons on a repetitive, assembly line basis as the platform is floated from one station to another through the facility, Mr. Freeman explained. A test basin would be located at the end of the assembly area, with all non-nuclear, func- tional tests to be conducted there to demonstrate operability of the plant. Only then w®uld the plat- form reactor be towed to a utility customer's site, installed and fueled within a breakwater.

The design calls for the nuclear steam supply system, turbine, gen- erator and associated equipment to be installed on a square platform measuring 400 feet on a side. The floating platform would have a steel honeycomb construction to assure watertight security and would be designed to withstand salt water exposure for the life of the plant. The entire plant would have a displacement of 150.000 tons—about that of a large, oceangoing tanker — and would draw 30 feet of water.

When permanently installed, the platform reactor would float and be anchored in a stable, man-made lagoon isolated on four sides from agitation of the ocean surface. The breakwater's outer profile would be sufficiently gradual that an off- course ship would run aground be- fore it could hit the protective por- tion of the breakwater.

Power from the plant's genera- tor would be transmitted ashore by means of an underwater line.

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September 1, 1971 21