SAUDI NUCLEAR TENDER

RIYADH: Toshiba-owned Westinghouse is in talks with other U.S-based companies to form a consortium to bid in a ''Multi-Billion Dollar'' tender--

For two nuclear power reactors in Saudi Arabia, three industry sources said.

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil producer, sent a request for information [RFI] to reactor builders worldwide last month in a first step towards opening a formal tender, Reuters has reported.

A Nuclear newcomer it wants to use atomic power to generate electricity at home so it can export more crude.

Taking part in the tender would be a major step for reactor builder Westinghouse after it went into chapter 11 bankruptcy this year.

US utilities also abandoned two and a half finished Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at VC Summer in the United States.

Toshiba which is looking for a buyer for Westinghouse, also dropped plans to build Westinghouse reactors in Britain and India.

If other companies join US-based Westinghouse in a consortium it would show that they still believe the AP1000 is a viable competitor to French, Russian, South Korean and Chinese reactor models.

Russian and South Korean companies already said that they plan to bid in a deal seen as one of the most promising prospects for the global nuclear industry, which is struggling to find contracts following Japan's Fukushima disaster in 2011.

A bid would also show that the United States remains a player in the small club of nuclear reactor builders in an industry which has important geopolitical and security implications.