CONTINGENCIES AND COMMITMENTS

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2013

Contingencies And Committment [Abstract]

CONTINGENCIES AND COMMITMENTS

15.CONTINGENCIES AND COMMITMENTS

Legal Proceedings

The Corporation has been named in a number of lawsuits that allege injury from exposure to asbestos. To date, the Corporation has not been found liable for or paid any material sum of money in settlement in any case. The Corporation believes its minimal use of asbestos in its past and current operations and the relatively non-friable condition of asbestos in its products makes it unlikely that it will face material liability in any asbestos litigation, whether individually or in the aggregate. The Corporation maintains insurance coverage for these potential liabilities and believes adequate coverage exists to cover any unanticipated asbestos liability.

The Corporation is party to a number of legal actions and claims, none of which individually or in the aggregate, in the opinion of management, are expected to have a material effect on the Corporation's results of operations or financial position.

Environmental Matters

The Corporation's environmental obligations have not changed significantly from December 31, 2012. The aggregate environmental liability was $16.7 million at March 31,2013. All environmental reserves exclude any potential recovery from insurance carriers or third-party legal actions.

Letters of Credit and Other Financial Arrangements

The Corporation enters into standby letters of credit agreements and guarantees with financial institutions and customers primarily relating to guarantees of repayment, future performance on certain contracts to provide products and services, and to secure advance payments from certain international customers.At March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, there were$52.4 million and $51.8 million, of stand-by letters of credit outstanding, respectively, and $8.9 million and $6.8 million of bank guarantees outstanding, respectively. In addition, the Corporationis required to provide the Nuclear Regulatory Commission financial assurance demonstrating its ability to cover the cost of decommissioning its Cheswick, Pennsylvania facility upon closure, though the Corporation does not intend to close this facility. The Corporation has provided this financial assurance in the form of a $52.9 million surety bond.

AP1000 Program

The Corporation's Electro-Mechanical Division is the reactor coolant pump (RCP) supplier for the Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power plants under construction in China and the United States.  The terms of the contract include liquidated damage penalty provisions if the Corporation is responsible for the failure to meet specified contractual milestone dates. To date, the Corporation has not met certain delivery dates under the contract.  However, currently, there has not been any threat, allegation, or claim for liquidated damages.  Based upon the evaluation of our performance and other legal analysis, the Corporation does not believe it will be subject to liquidated damages penalties. The Corporation believes that all future delivery dates will be revised to mitigate any performance risk and that adequate legal defenses exist should a liquidated damages claim be alleged against the Corporation. Based upon the information available to date, the Corporation does not believe that the ultimate outcome will result in a material impact to its results of operations, financial condition, or cash flows.

U.S. Government Defense Budget/Sequestration

In August 2011, the Budget Control Act (the Act) announced a reduction in the Department of Defense (DoD) top line budget by approximately $490 billion over 10 years starting in 2013.  The initial and mandatory budget cuts (or sequestration) as outlined in the Act were to be implemented starting on January 2, 2013. However, on January 1, 2013, Congress elected to delay the impact of sequestration until at least March 1, 2013, and these cuts were to be automatically implemented if an agreement had not been reached by March 27, 2013.  On March 26, 2013, President Obama signed into law a continuing budget resolution which provides additional funding and flexibility for U.S. Government agencies to reallocate funds to priority areas in FY2013.  In April 2013, the President released his initial budget proposal for FY2014, which leaves uncertainty as to how the sequester to be imposed on defense spending next year will be determined.  While such reductions to future DoD spending levels are largely undetermined, any reduction in levels of DoD spending, cancellations or delays impacting existing contracts or programs, including through sequestration, could have a material impact on the Corporation's results of operations, financial position, or cash flows.