Hitachi and General Electric have been tapped to build two nuclear reactors in the US in a US$5.2 billion project that underlines how soaring oil prices are boosting global interest in nuclear power.
The deal, confirmed by Hitachi Ltd yesterday for reactors outside Houston, Texas, for US power supplier NRG Energy Inc, is also likely to help the Japanese electronics and power plant manufacturer compete better against rivals.
Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp recently purchased Westinghouse Electric Co of the US, striving to become the world's No. 1 nuclear power company.
Hitachi said details were being worked out with General Electric Co, a US company whose businesses span energy and financial services. A final contract is expected next year or in 2008, and the reactors are to start operating by 2014.
Surging oil prices have been adding to the appeal of nuclear power despite safety concerns. Proponents have been trying to improve the negative image of nuclear power created by accidents such as the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania in 1979.
The world's nuclear power giants are counting on growing demand not only in the US but also in China, where the power market is expected to balloon.
Last year, US President George W. Bush signed an energy bill that provides incentives for nuclear power plant building in the US.
There are 100 nuclear power plants scattered across 31 US states, but an order has not been placed for a new reactor since 1973. The US now gets about 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear reactors.
In the fiscal year that ended in March, Hitachi's sales in its electric power facilities and equipment business totaled ?558 billion (US$4.8 billion). Sales from its nuclear power business accounted for about 30 percent of that.
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