nuclear-news

Japan’s nuclear companies desperate to sell nukes overseas

Hitachi shifts focus of nuclear business overseas, Asahi Shimbun October 27, 2012 By TOMOYA FUJITA  Hitachi Ltd. is set to acquire Britain’s Horizon Nuclear Power, underscoring the company’s shift of focus to the nuclear plant sector overseas.

The move comes as no surprise as Japan’s other nuclear plant manufacturers are also struggling after last year’s disaster put a potentially permanent halt to domestic construction of new facilities.

The disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant also led to the suspension of operations at almost all of Japan’s reactors, resulting in a sharp drop in the need for inspection and maintenance, previously a major source of revenue for Hitachi’s nuclear sector.

The drop in that revenue was a key reason Hitachi’s nuclear sector recorded a loss for the fiscal year that ended in March, possibly the first time that has happened since the company’s early years in the nuclear business, according to a company official.

Masaharu Hanyu, Hitachi vice president and executive officer who oversees the nuclear sector, said, “Because we have many new plant projects in Japan, the suspension of construction work after the Fukushima accident directly affected our revenues.”…..
Westinghouse’s earnings abroad now account for the majority of Toshiba’s revenues in the nuclear sector.

Toshiba itself, however, has been directly affected by the Fukushima
accident. Just as it seemed set to win a contract to construct a
nuclear plant in Turkey, Turkish officials scrapped the project after
the scale of the Fukushima disaster became apparent.

Toshiba is now competing with a South Korean company for the contract.

In August, Turkish officials expressed concern that Toshiba was
considering the construction of a boiling water reactor similar in
type to one at the Fukushima No. 1 plant. They made clear they did not
want one built in Turkey.

Because of similar concerns elsewhere, Toshiba is now moving to use
the pressurized water reactor that Westinghouse manufactures in
seeking contracts overseas.

Japanese nuclear plant manufacturers will not only have to overcome
the negative publicity from the Fukushima accident, but also fierce
competition from rivals in South Korea and Russia that have the strong
backing of their respective governments for the export of nuclear
plants…. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201210270048

October 29, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, marketing