Westinghouse Electric Co. received final design approval yesterday for a new nuclear reactor design, clearing the way for the Monroeville-based company to bid for plants China wants to build to meet its growing energy needs.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission certified Westinghouse's AP1000, a safer, quicker-to-build pressurized water reactor that can generate about 1,100 megawatts of electricity -- about the same as existing nuclear plants -- with 35 percent fewer pumps, 50 percent fewer valves, 70 percent less wiring and 80 percent less piping.

Booming China needs more power and, confronting global demands to reduce pollution generated by coal-burning plants, is readying a call for bids for four more nuclear plants. The country already has nine in operation and two under construction.

Chinese officials told Vice President Dick Cheney during his visit there in April that they envision having 24 to 32 nuclear plants in operation by 2020. Cheney pushed for the use of Westinghouse technology during his visit -- a step that could ease trade pressures between the two countries in the wake of China's growing trade surplus with the United States.

It's estimated that the AP1000s would be ordered in twos and would cost $2.2 billion to $2.7 billion a pair to build, generating some 5,000 jobs in the United States, many of them locally, where the design and engineering would occur and the plant control systems would be built. Westinghouse employs some 3,000 in the region.

The company is among the front-runners for the new pressurized-water nuclear plants, along with France's Areva and the Russian firm AtomStroyExport, China's People's Daily reported this week. China has yet to set a date for seeking the bids.

While the NRC's final design approval for the AP1000 will allow Westinghouse to build a plant in China, it still must receive federal design certification, expected early next year, before one can be built in the United States.

Westinghouse is hoping the new, safer design will end a prolonged drought that has not seen a domestic plant ordered since 1978.