Brussels, 20/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has cleared the proposed acquisition by the Japanese conglomerate Toshiba of Westinghouse Electric/BNFL, both active in the nuclear sector. To allay Commission concerns, Toshiba has made a commitment to modify its contractual arrangements with its partners in Global Nuclear Fuels. Toshiba holds a minority share in the nuclear fuel assembly supplier Global Nuclear Fuels (“GNF”), controlled by the US company General Electric (“GE”), with Hitachi also holding a minority stake. The Commission found that the proposed transaction would combine two suppliers of nuclear power plants and related products whose activities are to a significant extent complementary, both technologically and geographically. The Commission observed that the new entity formed by Toshiba, which focuses on nuclear power plants based on so-called boiling water reactors, mainly in Asia, whilst Westinghouse is active principally in pressurised water reactors, would still face competition from a number of suppliers of nuclear products and services after the merger (Areva and GE, notably) but that it harboured concerns about possible effects on potential competition in the fuel assembly markets. Given Toshiba's stake in GNF and its control of Westinghouse, Toshiba has submitted to the Commission a commitment to modify its contractual arrangements with its partners in GE and Hitachi in order to eliminate the risk that Toshiba could impede competition through the joint venture. The Commission explained in a press release that, “subject to full compliance with the commitment submitted, “the proposed operation would not raise competition concerns and would not have any negative impact on European customers or on the safety of energy supply in Europe”.