WESTINGHOUSE <WX> TAKES OVER NUCLEAR PLANT
Westinghouse Electric Corp took
over operations of several facilities at the U.S. Department of
Energy's Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash, the
DOE said.
    It said that Westinghouse replaces Rockwell International
and UNC Nuclear Inc, who have been criticized by the state of
Washington, the federal government and environmentalists for
failing to correct safety problems at Hanford.
    Westinghouse signed a four billion dlr contract three weeks
ago to operate Hanford for the next five years, DOE said.
    The contract provides the company and annual profit between
1.4 mln and 14.6 mln dlrs, depending on the quality of its
performance, the DOE said. "Our first objective is to be safe,"
soid William Jacobi, Westinghouse general manager at Hanford,
adding, "If we can make that (safety) a priority we can have
the production we need."
    Westinghouse's chief mission at Hanford is to produce
plutonium, supervise research for the Strategic Defense
Inititive, SDI, and the cleanup of military nuclear waste
stored in tanks at the site since the 1940's, company and DOE
officials said.
   
 Reuter
