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Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy last month hit by billions of
dollars of cost overruns at four nuclear reactors under
construction in the U.S. Southeast.
The bankruptcy is likely to lead to the eventual sale of
Westinghouse's nuclear business and Chinese interests have been
seen as possible buyers, given the chance.
"It's a real concern; they've wanted to get their hands on power
grid and nuclear infrastructure for a long time," an official in
the U.S. administration told Reuters as China's President Xi
Jinping arrived in the United States on Thursday for a first
summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.
"You go into a situation like the Toshiba situation where
there's financial chaos. There's a chance that things can happen
in a way that's dangerous."
Some nuclear technologies have dual use, meaning they can be
used for civilian and military purposes.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
conversations were going on between the U.S. and Japanese
governments "on ways to mitigate a potential sale."
"There are ways that are being looked at, both formally and
informally, to make sure there is no threat to critical
infrastructure," the official said.
Japan's trade minister, Hiroshige Seko, denied that the Japanese
and U.S. governments were in talks about the situation
surrounding Westinghouse, telling a regular news conference in
Tokyo they were "not discussing it at all."
Finance Minister Taro Aso told a separate briefing that his
planned meeting with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence this month
in Japan was not expected to touch on Toshiba.
An inter-agency body of the U.S. government known as the
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and
its Japanese equivalent review the national security
implications of foreign investments in firms.
South Korea's state-controlled Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO)
<015760.KS> has been considered the likeliest potential buyer
for Westinghouse.
Like Japan, South Korea is a security ally of the United States,
while China is a fast-growing strategic rival.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick; Additional
reporting in Tokyo by Ami Miyazaki and Stanley White; Editing by
James Dalgleish and Randy Fabi)
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