Hitachi, GE to develop smaller nuclear reactors
There is a growing demand in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand for midsize nuclear reactors; Hitachi and GE respond
Japan’s Hitachi and U.S. giant General Electric will team up to sell midsize nuclear reactors to meet growing demand for power facilities in Southeast Asia, a Hitachi spokesman said last week. The move comes as soaring crude oil prices and worries about global warming spur interest in nuclear power.
The move is aimed at tapping into the markets in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand, where demand for reactors with output of one million kilowatts or less is expected to grow, spokesman Masayuki Takeuchi said. “We’ve been developing the core part of midsize nuclear reactors and we will now work closely with our potential customers over details of reactor designs,” he said.
Hitachi and GE will jointly develop compact and advanced boiling-water reactors to try to meet that need, he said. Hitachi and GE already have a tie-up that has been focusing on larger nuclear reactors.
