[stg22]

In 2006, Toshiba bought Westinghouse Electric Company in one of the worst deals in history.

Westinghouse negotiated fixed price contracts to construct nuclear reactors and Toshiba provided financial guarantees, so they ended up on the hook for massive cost over-runs. In 2017 alone, Westinghouse reported an annual loss of $9bn. and declared themselves bankrupt.

Toshiba had to sell a load of businesses over the years to escape the Westinghouse black hole and repair their balance sheet.

[christophilus]

Didn’t Brookfield buy Westinghouse? How do they plan on avoiding those same risks? Brookfield doesn’t strike me as the kind of company to repeat that sort of error.

[Tsarbomb]

Westinghouse is owned by Brookfield Renewable Partners and Cameco.

Cameco is the second largest uranium producer in the world. Brookfield Renewable Partners owns and operates a lot of power generation. Both are Canadian where there is a huge pool of both power generation and specifically nuclear power generation talent and experience. As an example until 2016 Canada had the largest operator nuclear power facility in the world, several provinces are currently in the planning phases of SMRs, and Canada will be financing CANDU reactors in Romania.

It's safe to say they see some sort of advantageous vertical integration of the supply chain, as well as believing regulatory and economic outlooks being good.

[soperj]

CANDU reactors are pretty spiffy. Can run on unenriched natural uranium, or even uranium mixed with thorium or plutonium. Design also comes with a lot of passive safety features.

[MichaelZuo]

All the debts were left with Toshiba, otherwise Westinghouse would have been worth far less than nothing, but the learnings would have been retained. And I imagine after such a traumatic experience they wouldn't be forgotten quickly.