CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 25, 2024--
Westinghouse Electric Company and CORE POWER today announced the formalization of a cooperative agreement for the design and development of a floating nuclear power plant (FNPP) using the industry-leading eVinci™ microreactor.
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FNPPs are a game-changing approach to deploying nuclear energy to islands, ports, coastal communities and industry. These innovative power plants can be centrally manufactured and easily transported to operation sites, combining advanced nuclear technology with shipyard efficiency. As a highly transportable source of cost-competitive, reliable nuclear power, the eVinci microreactor is perfectly suited to FNPPs. The eVinci microreactor requires minimal maintenance and can operate for eight years at full power before refueling, allowing for reliable long-term power generation at almost any location.
“There’s no net-zero without nuclear. A long series of identical turnkey power plants using multiple installations of the Westinghouse eVinci microreactor delivered by sea, creates a real opportunity to scale nuclear as the perfect solution to meet the rapidly growing demand for clean, flexible and reliable electricity delivered on time and on budget,” said Mikal Bøe, CEO of CORE POWER. “Our unique partnership with Westinghouse is a game changer for how customers buy nuclear energy.”
Under the agreement, Westinghouse and CORE POWER will advance the design of a FNPP using the eVinci microreactor and its heat pipe technology. Based on more than 60 years of proven use, heat pipe technology improves reliability while providing a simple, non-pressurized method of passively transferring heat. Heat pipes in the eVinci microreactor transfer heat from the nuclear core to a power conversion system, eliminating the need for water cooling and the associated recirculation systems. In addition, the companies will collaborate to develop a regulatory approach to licensing FNPP systems.
“With this groundbreaking agreement, we will demonstrate the viability of the eVinci technology for innovative use cases where power is needed in remote locations or in areas with land limitations,” said Jon Ball, President of eVinci Technologies at Westinghouse. “We look forward to our partnership with CORE POWER, bringing the unique advantages of eVinci microreactors to maritime and coastal applications, potentially even paving the way for future disaster relief efforts.”
The eVinci microreactor builds on decades of industry-leading Westinghouse innovation to bring carbon-free, safe and scalable energy wherever it is needed for a variety of applications, including providing reliable electricity and heating for remote communities, universities, mining operations, industrial centers, data centers, and defense facilities, and soon the lunar surface and beyond. The resilient eVinci microreactor has very few moving parts, working essentially as a battery, providing the versatility for power systems ranging from several kilowatts to 5 megawatts of electricity, delivered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for eight-plus years without refueling. It can also produce high temperature heat suitable for industrial applications, including alternative fuel production such as hydrogen, and has the flexibility to balance renewable output. The technology is factory-built and assembled before it is shipped in a container.
Westinghouse Electric Company is shaping the future of carbon-free energy by providing safe, innovative nuclear and other clean power technologies and services globally. Westinghouse supplied the world’s first commercial pressurized water reactor in 1957 and the company’s technology is the basis for nearly one-half of the world's operating nuclear plants. Over 135 years of innovation makes Westinghouse the preferred partner for advanced technologies covering the complete nuclear energy life cycle. For more information, visit www.westinghousenuclear.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and X.
CORE POWER is building a Maritime Civil Nuclear Program in the OECD through scalable new nuclear technology solutions for maritime and heavy industries. CORE POWER's mission is to dramatically improve energy efficiency and local energy security by delivering investable, floating nuclear energy solutions from shipyard manufacturing on time and on budget. CORE POWER is present across the OECD, with offices in London, Washington DC, and Tokyo. For more information, please visit https://corepower.energy and follow us on LinkedIn.
Westinghouse and CORE POWER are partnering for the design and development of a floating nuclear power plant using the industry-leading eVinci™ microreactor. Floating Nuclear Power Plant Image © 2024 by CORE POWER. (Photo: Business Wire)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s personnel choices for his new Cabinet and White House reflect his signature positions on immigration and trade but also a range of viewpoints and backgrounds that raise questions about what ideological anchors might guide his Oval Office encore.
With a rapid assembly of his second administration — faster than his effort eight years ago — the former and incoming president has combined television personalities, former Democrats, a wrestling executive and traditional elected Republicans into a mix that makes clear his intentions to impose tariffs on imported goods and crack down on illegal immigration but leaves open a range of possibilities on other policy pursuits.
“The president has his two big priorities and doesn’t feel as strongly about anything else — so it’s going to be a real jump ball and zigzag,” predicted Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence during Trump’s 2017-21 term. “In the first administration, he surrounded himself with more conservative thinkers, and the results showed we were mostly rowing in the same direction. This is more eclectic.”
Indeed, Secretary of State-designee Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who has pilloried authoritarian regimes around the world, is in line to serve as top diplomat to a president who praises autocratic leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon has been tapped to sit at the Cabinet table as a pro-union labor secretary alongside multiple billionaires, former governors and others who oppose making it easier for workers to organize themselves.
The prospective treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, wants to cut deficits for a president who promised more tax cuts, better veterans services and no rollbacks of the largest federal outlays: Social Security, Medicare and national defense.
Abortion-rights supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is Trump's choice to lead the Health and Human Services Department, which Trump’s conservative Christian base has long targeted as an agency where the anti-abortion movement must wield more influence.
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich allowed that members of Trump’s slate will not always agree with the president and certainly not with one another. But he minimized the potential for irreconcilable differences: “A strong Cabinet, by definition, means you’re going to have people with different opinions and different skills.”
That kind of unpredictability is at the core of Trump’s political identity. He is the erstwhile reality TV star who already upended Washington once and is returning to power with sweeping, sometimes contradictory promises that convinced voters, especially those in the working class, that he will do it all again.
“What Donald Trump has done is reorient political leadership and activism to a more entrepreneurial spirit,” Gingrich said.
There's also plenty of room for conflict, given the breadth of Trump's 2024 campaign promises and his pattern of cycling through Cabinet members and national security personnel during his first term.
This time, Trump has pledged to impose tariffs on foreign goods, end illegal immigration and launch a mass deportation force, goose U.S. energy production and exact retribution on people who opposed — and prosecuted — him. He's added promises to cut taxes, raise wages, end wars in Israel and Ukraine, streamline government, protect Social Security and Medicare, help veterans and squelch cultural progressivism.
Trump alluded to some of those promises in recent weeks as he completed his proposed roster of federal department heads and named top White House staff members. But his announcements skimmed over any policy paradoxes or potential complications.
Bessent has crusaded as a deficit hawk, warning that the ballooning national debt, paired with higher interest rates, drives consumer inflation. But he also supports extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts that added to the overall debt and annual debt service payments to investors who buy Treasury notes.
A hedge-fund billionaire, Bessent built his wealth in world markets. Yet, generally speaking, he’s endorsed Trump's tariffs. He rejects the idea that they feed inflation and instead frames tariffs as one-time price adjustments and leverage to achieve U.S. foreign policy and domestic economic aims.
Trump, for his part, declared that Bessent would “help me usher in a new Golden Age for the United States.”
Chavez-DeRemer, Trump promised, “will achieve historic cooperation between Business and Labor that will restore the American Dream for Working Families.”
Trump did not address the Oregon congresswoman’s staunch support for the PRO-Act, a Democratic-backed measure that would make it easier for workers to unionize, among other provisions. That proposal passed the House when Democrats held a majority. But it’s never had measurable Republican support in either chamber on Capitol Hill, and Trump has never made it part of his agenda.
When Trump named Kennedy as his pick for health secretary, he did not mention the former Democrat’s support for abortion rights. Instead, Trump put the focus on Kennedy’s intention to take on the U.S. agriculture, food processing and drug manufacturing sectors.
The vagaries of Trump’s foreign policy stand out, as well. Trump's choice for national security adviser, Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, offered mixed messages Sunday when discussing the Russia-Ukraine war, which Trump claims never would have started had he been president, because he would have prevailed on Putin not to invade his neighboring country.
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Waltz repeated Trump’s concerns over recent escalations, which include President Joe Biden approving sending antipersonnel mines to Ukrainian forces.
“We need to restore deterrence, restore peace and get ahead of this escalation ladder, rather than responding to it,” Waltz said. But in the same interview, Waltz declared the mines necessary to help Ukraine “stop Russian gains” and said he’s working “hand in glove” with Biden’s team during the transition.
Meanwhile, Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, the top intelligence post in government, is an outspoken defender of Putin and Syrian President Bashar al Assad, a close ally of Russia and Iran.
Perhaps the biggest wildcards of Trump’s governing constellation are budget-and-spending advisers Russell Vought, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Vought led Trump’s Office of Management and Budget in his first term and is in line for the same post again. Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, and Ramaswamy, a mega-millionaire venture capitalist, are leading an outside advisory panel known as the “Department of Government Efficiency.”
The latter effort is a quasi-official exercise to identify waste. It carries no statutory authority, but Trump can route Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s recommendations to official government pathways, including via Vought.
A leading author of Project 2025, the conservative movement’s blueprint for a hard-right turn in U.S. government and society, Vought envisions OMB not just as an influential office to shape Trump’s budget proposals for Congress but a power center of the executive branch, “powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.”
As for how Trump might navigate differences across his administration, Gingrich pointed to Chavez-DeRemer.
“He might not agree with her on union issues, but he might not stop her from pushing it herself,” Gingrich said of the PRO-Act. “And he will listen to anybody. If you convince him, he absolutely will spend presidential capital.”
Short said other factors are more likely to influence Trump: personalities and, of course, loyalty.
Vought “brought him potential spending cuts” in the first administration, Short said, “that Trump wouldn’t go along with.” This time, Short continued, “maybe Elon and Vivek provide backup,” giving Vought the imprimatur of two wealthy businessmen.
“He will always calculate who has been good to him,” Short said. “You already see that: The unions got the labor secretary they wanted, and Putin and Assad got the DNI (intelligence chief) they wanted. … This is not so much a team-of-rivals situation. I think it’s going to look a lot like a reality TV show.”
FILE - Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard answers a question during a campaign event, Sept. 14, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
FILE - Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill, July 22, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)
FILE - Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign event Nov. 1, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
FILE - Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., accompanied by Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., left, and House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., right, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, left, listens as investor Scott Bessent speaks on the economy in Asheville, N.C., Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley, File)
FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump smiles at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump, left, listens as acting director of the Office of Management and Budget Russel Vought speaks during an event on "transparency in Federal guidance and enforcement" in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Oct. 9, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump greets Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., during a campaign rally at J.S. Dorton Arena, Nov. 4, 2024, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
President-elect Donald Trump walks with Elon Musk before the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024 in Boca Chica, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Pool via AP)
