M'bishi Heavy to brief on cooperation with Areva

TOKYO, Oct 19 (Reuters) Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. said on Thursday it would hold a news conference with France's Areva, the world's largest maker of nuclear reactors, on their plans to cooperate in the nuclear power business.

The Yomiuri newspaper reported this week that Japan's biggest heavy machinery maker and Areva are in the final stages of talks to form a wide-ranging alliance to develop nuclear power plants and reactors.

Mitsubishi Heavy , Japan's largest machinery maker, lost out to Toshiba Corp. in the race to buy U.S. nuclear plant maker Westinghouse -- a company with which Mitsubishi has had ties for more than 40 years -- and analysts said moves to seek out Areva as a new partner were only natural.

Mitsubishi Heavy President Kazuo Tsukuda and Areva Chief Executive Anne Lauvergeon will attend the news conference, to be held at 4.00 p.m. (0700 GMT).

The newspaper said Areva and Mitsubishi planned to work together on joint development of pressurised water reactors, which account for around 70 percent of the global market, and on obtaining plant orders as well as cooperating in technology.

An alliance was seen as lowering costs of development, parts procurement, design and engineering for both companies.

Areva, owned by the French government, says it is the only company in the world involved in the full cycle of nuclear power activity, from mining uranium to its enrichment, fuel production, reactor design, plant construction, fuel processing and recycling.

Like their rivals Toshiba/Westinghouse and General Electric Co., which partners with Hitachi Ltd., both Areva and Mitsubishi have been keen to tap future growth in nuclear power demand, which has come back to the fore particularly in the China, India and the United States as energy demand has grown and oil prices soared.

Mitsubishi Heavy's shares were up 1 percent at 529 yen in afternoon trade compared with a 0.8 percent decline in the Nikkei average.

REUTERS DKS DB1158