Tokyo Report: Nuclear Power Plant Business Growing

Tokyo, Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--Toshiba Corp. <6502> and two other Japanese nuclear plant builders are stepping up efforts to take advantage of a favorable business environment created by high crude oil prices and concerns over global warming.

Nuclear power generation has the advantages of relatively low costs
and no carbon dioxide emissions, prompting reassessments by many countries.
The United States last year lifted its 30-year ban on the construction of
new atomic power plants, with an eye toward building more than 30 new
reactors, while Britain has shifted from its policy of moving away from
nuclear power generation.
Among other countries, China plans to build 35 new reactors in the
face of soaring domestic demand for electricity, and Russia intends to
construct two plants annually through 2030.
Toshiba, Hitachi Ltd. <6501> and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.
<6503> also expect favorable results from a proposal at the summit of the
Group of Eight major industrialized nations in Hokkaido, northern Japan, in
July to support nuclear power generation in developing countries.
By 2030, the global market for nuclear power generation is now
forecast to grow 40 pct from its current scale.
Toshiba substantially strengthened its presence in the market by
acquiring U.S. nuclear power plant builder Westinghouse Electronic Co., a
leading manufacturer of pressurized water reactors, in 2006. The move made
Toshiba the world's sole maker of both PWRs, which account for more than
half of the global market for nuclear reactors, and boiling water reactors.
Toshiba has since won orders for 12 reactors from the United States
and China and is in negotiations for orders from Britain and South Africa.
It hopes to clinch orders for a total of 39 reactors by 2015.
Elsewhere, Hitachi, a BWR producer, and General Electric Co. of the
U.S. have integrated their nuclear reactors operations and jointly won
orders for five reactors in the United States. The partners are stepping up
marketing worldwide in a bid to secure orders for one-third of new building
projects.
Mitsubishi, the sole Japanese producer of PWRs, has joined hands
with France's Areva Group in the reactor business and kicked off a joint
project to develop a next-generation midsize reactor.
Also working to devise a small reactor for use in developing
countries, Mitsubishi aims to establish "a full line of reactors" with the
aim of capturing a 30 pct share of the global reactor market, a company
spokesman says.
The three Japanese companies have already started preparations for
a rise in orders for reactors. Toshiba, for example, has formed an alliance
with Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., South Korea's largest heavy
machinery maker, to reinforce its turbine production capacity by 2011.
Hitachi and Mitsubishi are also set to boost their turbine output
capacities, by fiscal 2010 and 2011, respectively.
Meanwhile, two absolute prerequisites for the nuclear plant
business are the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons and the safety of
atomic power generation.
In early September, however, the Nuclear Suppliers Group approved a
waiver of its normal rules to allow sales of nuclear equipment and
technologies to India without requiring the country to join the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty.
Nuclear industry officials warn that the decision by the NSG, which
groups more than 40 countries including Japan, was the result of making the
U.S. nuclear business a priority over nonproliferation and could shaken the
NPT system.
Regarding safety, many countries have yet to devise specific
solutions on the disposal of high-level radioactive waste.
For sustained growth in the sector, continuing efforts are
essential to achieve both environmental protection and energy security. At
the same time, preventing nuclear power generation technologies from being
diverted to military use and establishing effective ways to dispose of
high-level radioactive waste are far from simple tasks.