While scant on details, Westinghouse Electric said Friday it has “confidentially” filed a draft registration statement on Form S-1with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), beginning its process to become a public entity.
According to Westinghouse’s press release, the number of shares and price range for its public offering have not been determined at this time. Westinghouse’s decision to go public comes at a time as the company is planning 10 large reactors in the United States, following President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14302.
Last month, the Department of Energy issued $17.5 billion in loans to the supply chain to help spur construction of Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactors. With the AP1000 reactor design being the only large-scale advanced reactor licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the government has invested in using the company’s reactor to implement fleet-scale deployment.
Additionally, Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactor design certification renewal review with NRC is ongoing. The renewal of the reactor design is part of Westinghouse’s strategic plan to enable its ability to scale its reactor construction.
Westinghouse joins several other nuclear companies, such as X-Energy, Deep Fission and Standard Nuclear, in their ventures to go public and capitalize on the current momentum of nuclear power in the U.S.
Westinghouse’s bid to go public comes nine years after the company, while owned by a different parent, went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings after project overruns at both Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station in South Carolina and Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia.
The company emerged from bankruptcy reorganization in 2018 after Brookfield Asset Management bought it from former parent Toshiba Corporation. Westinghouse is owned by Brookfield and Cameco, in which Brookfield owns a 51% interest stake in the company, while Cameco owns 49%.