Westinghouse Electric Co. signed a definitive agreement October 27 to acquire CB&I Stone & Webster Inc., the nuclear construction and integrated services businesses of CB&I. The deal is expected to be completed by December 2015. Financial details were not immediately disclosed.

Westinghouse says it will assume project operations and assets, including AP1000 plant project contracts in the U.S. and China; heavy cranes and equipment; and 11 facilities in the U.S. and Asia.

In this view from June 2013, Vogtle construction crews place a 900-ton piece of the containment vessel into the Unit 3 nuclear island. Image source: Georgia Power.Westinghouse says that Fluor Corp. will manage a "significant portion" of the construction of Vogtle Electric Generating Plant’s Units 3 & 4 near, and two additional nuclear electric generating units at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station and will provide project execution and direction, accountability for and management of professional staff and craft personnel. Fluor’s management plans for construction become effective at the close of the CB&I acquisition.

Georgia Power, a unit of Southern Co., says that it and the other Vogtle co-owners (Oglethorpe Power Corp., Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities) have agreed to settle all claims currently in litigation with the project's contractors and to include additional protections in the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract against future claims.

Buzz Miller, executive vice president of nuclear development for Georgia Power. , says in a release that the agreement resolves current and pending disputes, reaffirms the current schedule and increases efficiencies by streamlining resource deployment with Westinghouse and its affiliates as the prime contractor over the Vogtle expansion."

The agreement reaffirms the current in-service dates of 2019 for Unit 3 and 2020 for Unit 4. Construction of the new units is said to be more than halfway complete based on contractual milestones.

Oglethorpe Power owns 30% of Units 3 & 4 and says the agreement specifies that the co-owners and the contractor, Westinghouse, will "mutually release all open claims that have been asserted or could have been asserted under the original terms of the engineering, procurement and construction agreement." This includes the Vogtle construction litigation, which will be "dismissed with prejudice."

Oglethorpe says its share of the settlement obligation amount is around $230 million. It says its previously disclosed budget for the project remains unchanged at $5 billion even after payments contemplated by the settlement and other smaller agreed upon scope changes. The budget includes capital costs, allowance for funds used during construction and contingency amounts.

Additionally, the EPC agreement will be amended to restrict the contractor's ability to seek further increases in the contract price and will provide enhanced dispute resolution procedures, Oglethorpe says.

Southern Nuclear, a subsidiary of Southern Co., is overseeing construction and will operate the two 1,100-megawatt AP1000 units for Georgia Power. Georgia Power owns 45.7% of the new units.

Westinghouse Electric Co. is a group company of Toshiba Corp. and supplies nuclear plant products (including fuel) and technologies to utilities throughout the world.

Fluor says it expects to book an award in the fourth quarter of 2015 related to these projects.