Westinghouse Electric Company today inaugurated the extension of its European Maintenance Center in Nivelles, Belgium to provide scalable growth to support an increasing customer base, including Electricite de France (EDF), as well as Spanish energy giants Endesa and Iberdrola.

The expansion will provide an additional 1,000 square meters of maintenance and storage space to support the Center's growing nuclear power plant service capacities. This investment of more than 8 million euros will contribute to the creation of up to 30 new engineering, technician and operator jobs in Nivelles.

At the Center's inauguration ceremony, Westinghouse vice president and managing director, France, Benelux and South Africa Francois Harari said, "Our ultimate goal has always been to create success for our customers.

This facility will allow Westinghouse to increase its capacities to provide state-of-the-art maintenance and services to our nuclear power plant customers across Europe. We're proud to be a growing business in Belgium."

The European Service Center provides design and maintenance for nuclear power plant large components and equipment. The Center has two fully licensed Class 2 nuclear facilities, including the 2,000-square-meter European Pump and Motor Maintenance and Repair Center.

Inaugurated in January 2010, this high-tech facility teeming with innovative services offers unique solutions to Westinghouse customers throughout Europe.

Westinghouse has a long and distinguished history in the nuclear industry across Europe - starting with the first pressurized water reactor (PWR) Belgian Reactor 3 or BR3, commissioned in 1962 under Westinghouse license.

Westinghouse directly employs approximately 4,000 highly-skilled and trained people across Europe. Westinghouse has been active in Belgium for more than 40 years and employs a multinational workforce of approximately 200 expert engineers and technicians, dedicated to providing global engineering and field services to the nuclear power utilities in Europe and worldwide.