If Toshiba Corp. parts ways with its embattled U.S. nuclear unit, Westinghouse Electric Co., the likely buyer may be a regional neighbor with global ambitions.

Westinghouse would be a strategic fit in China or South Korea, which are developing their own reactors for export, according to analysts and academics.

The region is also home to about half the world¡¯s nuclear units under construction, while China is forecast to have the largest fleet of reactors by the middle of next decade.