Toshiba confirmed that its U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse Electric filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York court, projecting an annual loss of a record 1.01 trillion yen ($9.1 billion).
Westinghouse was part of Toshiba's plans to diversify away from consumer electronics. The company has now put its prized memory chip unit up for sale just as it was recovering from a profit-padding scandal that claimed the scalps of senior executives.
Westinghouse, whose technology forms the basis of about half the world's atomic units, has been grappling with project setbacks in Georgia and South Carolina, which led to Toshiba's impairments. The forecast loss of 1.01 trillion yen for the Japanese parent company is more than double the the 390 billion yen loss projected last month.
Westinghouse signed deals in 2008 to build four reactors for Southern Co. and Scana Corp., at Three Mile Island to be approved for construction by regulators.
But costs for the reactors increased after stricter safety standards were put in place in the wake the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. On top of that, a plunge in natural gas prices has made nuclear generation less attractive.
Construction for Scana and Southern, didn't go smoothly. Some projects failed regulatory tests, while others fell behind schedule. Work that should have been finished last year or this year were pushed back to 2019 or 2020.