Can Toshiba's local nuclear joint ventures push them to the top?


With the rush of nations looking towards nuclear powered energy sources, the battle for supremacy in the nuclear production game has gained momentum. It is a cut throat world and any advantage will be well appreciated.

Toshiba is Japan's biggest maker of nuclear reactors by capacity. It is banking on support from its local partners to lift it to the top of the hierarchy, overcoming rivals such as Russia's Atom Story Export, France's Areva (EPR) who are also building nuclear power plants to catch up with rising demand for energy.

Fresh from clinching the biggest nuclear transfer of technology deal in history, Toshiba, has said that it may team up with local peers to develop a new model of nuclear reactor for sale at home and abroad. Toshiba is the majority shareholder of Westinghouse who was awarded the $5.3 billion dollar deal with China.

Toshiba now aims to boost sales by working on a 1,600 megawatt boiling-water reactor at its Yokohama design plant, Keisuke Ohmori. It will independently develop such a model and start selling it in 2015.

"We have started a feasibility study on the development of a next-generation reactor to join a national project," Keisuke Ohmori, a spokesman for the Tokyo-based company said. The timing for marketing "has yet to be decided."

Toshiba, which has supplied boiling-water reactors using technology from General Electric of the U.S, continue their efforts in dominating the market by acquiring Westinghouse Electric, whose pressurized-water technology is used in almost half the world's nuclear stations last year.

About 70 percent of atomic plants are pressurized-water reactors, or PWR, and 20 percent are boiling-water reactors, or BWR. Toshiba has added advantage as they handle both PWR and BWR.

Whether or not Toshiba can reach the pinnacle remains to be seen but with continued efforts at improvement and factors such as soaring oil prices and nations going eco-friendly lining up favourably, it is not hard to imagine Toshiba achieving that goal.