Tokyo, May 02: Japan's Toshiba Corp. has teamed up
with US power giant General Electric Co. (GE) in an effort to
win a nuclear power plant deal in the United States, the Nihon
Keizai Shimbun said today.
A consortium led by the two firms has filed with the
US department of energy for permission to conduct a
feasibility study for construction of advanced nuclear
reactors, the business daily said.
Among other members of the consortium are the
Tennessee valley authority, major contractor Bechtel Corp.,
enriched uranium fuel supplier Usec Inc. And global nuclear
fuel Americas LLC, a joint venture by GE, Toshiba and Hitachi
Ltd.
The move follows the decision by the administration
of US President George W. Bush to support construction of
nuclear power plants, the newspaper said.
Washington had suspended nuclear power plant
construction since a major accident at Three Mile island in
1979. Upon obtaining government permission, the firms will
begin a feasibility study for installing in Alabama an
advanced boiling water reactor with an output of over one
million kilowatts, the daily said.
Total construction costs are estimated at more than
three billion dollars. The partnership in the consortium might pave the way
for closer collaborations between Japanese and American firms
in nuclear technology, the newspaper said.
Bureau Report
