Hitachi to retain nuclear reactor business plan: VP

Tokyo, Jul 20: Despite the Fukushima plant disaster, Japanese multi-national Hitachi will keep its nuclear business development plan and aims to land orders for more than 38 nuclear reactors from around the world, including from India by 2030, a top company executive has said.

"Nuclear plants are globally important electricity sources," Tatsuro Ishizuka, a vice president and executive officer, said in a recent interview with Kyodo News.

"We would like to further improve the safety of nuclear plants and promote them as a key business pillar."

While the Japanese government, following the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, is reconsidering its policy of expanding the number of nuclear plants in Japan, Hitachi has decided to retain the nuclear business plans it adopted prior to the March disaster.

Ishizuka indicated that even if Japan freezes construction of new nuclear reactors, Hitachi may accelerate its reactor marketing efforts in foreign countries, including emerging economies where electricity demand is expanding sharply.

Hitachi hopes to get orders for 20 reactors from utilities in Asia and the Middle East, and for 12 nuclear reactors from utilities in North America, he said.

"We''ll give priority to negotiations with India, Vietnam, the United States and other countries" featuring growing energy demand, Ishizuka said.

"There are many countries that have adopted plans to expand nuclear energy under their national (energy) policies and we will meet their expectations."

Nuclear plants remain an effective means of cutting carbon dioxide emissions to help prevent climate change over the medium to long term, Ishizuka said.

Hitachi helped construct the Fukushima Daiichi plant crippled by the March natural disasters and left leaking radioactive material for weeks afterward.

Ishizuka said Hitachi will cooperate fully in stabilizing the plant by making proposals for a permanent reactor-cooling system and methods to extract nuclear fuels. "We will consider medium to long-term measures and make steady contributions to the stabilization."

PTI (Kyodo)