Shaw receives compensation for Lungmen

Tuesday, 1 February 2011 The Shaw Group of the USA said it had received a $29 million arbitration award payment from Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) for work completed on the Lungmen nuclear power plant. In January, the Taiwan High Court upheld an arbitration awarded that ordered Taipower to pay Shaw damages for increased costs caused by Taipower. The Taiwanese company decided not to appeal that ruling. Construction work began on the two 1350 MWe Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWRs) at Lungmen, near Taipei, in 1999, with the first originally scheduled to enter commercial operation in 2006 and the second in 2007. GE was awarded a contract to supply the reactors, with Mitsubishi supplying the steam turbines and other contractors the rest of the plant. Work on Lungmen was put on hold in 2000 after a cabinet decision to halt the project even though the reactors were two-thirds complete. The project restarted in 2001 after a legal appeal and a government resolution in favour of the plant. The units were put on track for completion in 2011 and 2012 by a funding decision in March 2009.