Nuclear Energy Investing -Toshiba plans Major Investment to catch upto Areva even as Indian,Chinese markets see setbacks

Toshiba aims to Double Nuclear Exports in next 5 years

Toshiba the No.2 players in the Nuclear Equipment markets is planning a major investment to double its sales of nuclear reactors to overseas markets.Areva,Toshiba-Westinghouse and GE-Hitachi are the Three Major Companies in the Global Nuclear Energy Equipment Market.GE-Hitachi is trailing in marketshare due to a lack of technology and poor focus leaving the fight for market leadership to Toshiba and Areva.Toshiba plans to invest $550 million a year to increase its Nuclear Equipment sales from $4 billion a year to $8 Billion a year by 2015 to markets such as US,India  and China.The Nuclear Energy market is seeing a Renaissance with increasing Energy Demand driving both China and India to set up ambitious growth plans in this sector.Toshiba plans to supply an integrated offering of Nuclear Fuel as well as Reactors to better compete with Areva.

Toshiba Plans to Double Overseas Nuclear Plant Sales by 2015 – Bloomberg

Toshiba Corp., Japan’s second- biggest supplier of reactors, plans to double overseas nuclear sales by 2015 and invest 50 billion yen ($550 million) a year in its power business to tap growing demand.More than seventy percent of nuclear sales should come from abroad by 2015, compared with 60 percent in the year ended March 2010, Yasuharu Igarashi, senior vice president and head of the power systems division, said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. Toshiba’s nuclear power unit targets 700 billion yen of overseas sales by 2015 compared with about 360 billion yen in fiscal 2009, said Ken Shinjo, a company spokesman.

China’s Minor Leak and India’s Failure to Cap the Nuclear Liability Bill

However there are some clouds on the horizon with one of China’s oldest reactors located in Guangdong province near Hong Kong suffering from a minor leak raising concerns.Though the leak was reported as minor,it reminds people of the extreme hazards of Nuclear Accident like the Chernobyl Incident which has a continent wide affect.It would again strenghten the NIMBY protests by local residents.

Small leak at Chinese nuclear plant: HK govt – Nuclear Power Daily

A nuclear plant in China’s southern Guangdong province has recorded a small leak, the Hong Kong government said Tuesday, after the incident was exposed by a US-based radio station.A small rise in radioactivity was observed on May 23 in a reactor cooling unit of the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station in Shenzhen, which is run by CLP Power, Hong Kong’s largest electricity supplier, the Hong Kong government said.

The report also said a large amount of radioactive iodine was released into the air. It said the plant’s management had kept the incident secret and only later reported it to authorities in Beijing.CLP disputed the report and said the leak was so minor it did not fall within an international nuclear rating or warrant immediate notification. But it added that it had reported the incident to state nuclear safety authorities.

India is also facing some push backs despite signing a comprehensive Nuclear Energy agreement with the US.This agreement removes India as a “Nuclear Pariah” and allows it to access Nuclear Reactors and Technology from major providers.However a Bill capping the Liability of Equipment providers failed to pass through the Indian Parliament.The catalyst was the Court Verdict on the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy focusing on the inadequate compensation received by the victims of the Disaster.It looks unlikely that the Bill will pass in the near future.

Nuclear liability bill not tabled in Lok Sabha – TimesofIndia

Apprehending trouble from opposition, government on Monday deferred introduction in Lok Sabha of nuclear liability bill which is a key step in operationalisation of the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal. “I have a request from the minister Prithviraj Chavan that government does not intend to introduce the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill on Monday,” Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar announced in the House. The bill was mentioned in the list of business for the day and the government’s decision sparked protests the opposition.