Product Description

Westinghouse Electric Corporation was the U.S. pioneer of the pressurized water reactor (PWR) — the reactor architecture that today powers roughly two-thirds of the U.S. commercial nuclear fleet. Westinghouse PWR primary-loop systems used asbestos-fiber gasket sealing rings at the high-temperature, high-pressure flanged joints of the reactor coolant system throughout the initial PWR build-out era, from the Shippingport prototype through the standardized two-loop, three-loop, and four-loop plant designs of the 1960s and 1970s.

Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Westinghouse PWR primary-side sealing systems included:

  • Compressed asbestos-fiber (CAF) sheet gaskets cut to shape at reactor coolant pump (RCP) casing splits and seal-package flanges
  • Spiral-wound gaskets with asbestos filler at steam generator primary-side manway and handhole covers
  • Braided asbestos sealing rings at pressurizer heater bundle penetrations and surge-line flanges
  • Asbestos-graphite sheet gaskets at reactor vessel head control-rod-drive-mechanism (CRDM) housing joints
  • Asbestos-packed gland seals on primary-loop isolation valves

These sealing surfaces were disturbed at every refueling outage — reactor coolant pumps were pulled for seal replacement, steam generator manways were opened for eddy-current inspection, and the reactor vessel head itself was detensioned and lifted for fuel handling. Gasket rip-out, wire-brushing of sealing faces, and re-gasketing were routine primary-side outage tasks.

Westinghouse has been named as a Manufacturer Defendant in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation.

Workers Exposed

  • Nuclear pipefitters (UA) removing and replacing primary-loop gaskets at RCP flanges, steam generator manways, and pressurizer connections
  • Boilermakers performing steam generator manway and handhole gasket work during outages
  • Millwrights pulling and reinstalling reactor coolant pump internals with asbestos-bearing seal-package gaskets
  • Nuclear maintenance mechanics on refueling-outage crews scraping and wire-brushing sealing faces
  • Bystander trades in containment and auxiliary-building work areas during gasket rip-out

Refueling-outage gasket work on Westinghouse PWR primary-loop joints was among the fiber-release activities alleged in publicly filed litigation — old sealing rings were often baked onto flange faces after operating cycles and required aggressive scraping and wire-brushing to remove.