Toshiba, Hitachi Seek Atomic Cooperation With India as Ban Ends

By Megumi Yamanaka

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese nuclear-reactor makers will visit India for the first time since a three-decade ban on atomic trade with the country ended and seek to catch up with the U.S. and France in the race to build power plants.

Senior engineers from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. will begin a one-week visit on Nov. 23 to meet top nuclear officials, Takuya Hattori, delegation head and president of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, said in an interview in Tokyo today. The 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group, which includes Japan, lifted its ban in September.

France and the U.S. this year agreed to transfer civilian nuclear technology to India, allowing Areva SA and General Electric Co. to compete for the reactors the country plans to build. In Japan, the only country ever attacked with atomic weapons, popular resistance discouraged Prime Minister Taro Aso from signing a cooperation accord with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Tokyo last month.

``If Japan continues to talk with India with the current undecided, opaque stance, there is risk that India may turn its back on Japan,'' Hiroshi Sekimoto, a professor in the nuclear energy department at Tokyo Institute of Technology, said by phone. ``China, Russia and France are willing to cooperate with India.''

India, the second-fastest growing major economy after China, aims to build 40,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity by 2020, equivalent to a third of the country's total power generation.

Russia, France

The monopoly Nuclear Power Corp. plans to buy more than $14 billion of equipment next year, Chairman Shreyans Kumar Jain said on Sept. 8. Nuclear Power is negotiating with General Electric and Westinghouse Electric Co. of the U.S., Russia's Rosatom Corp. and Areva, the world's biggest reactor maker, Jain said Oct. 3.

The seven-member Japanese delegation will meet Jain and Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar. They will tour nuclear sites and attend a seminar hosted by Nuclear Power.

``We will probably talk about the future of India's nuclear industry and exchange information on what kind of cooperation the countries can have in future,'' Hattori said. ``We haven't decided on any concrete subjects at this moment.''

The forum meets every two months to discuss nuclear relations with India.

The vote by the Nuclear Suppliers Group in September to end India's nuclear isolation prompted protests in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where more than 200,000 people were killed when the U.S. bombed the cities at the end of World War II. India's first atomic test in 1974 prompted other countries to form the suppliers group and block nuclear exports to the nation.

After his Oct. 22 meeting with Singh in October, Aso, 68, who faces an election early next year, said there had been no agreement on nuclear cooperation. Recent polls show most Japanese disapprove of Aso's performance, increasing chances that he will become the third Japanese leader to resign since September 2007.

``Japan is in a difficult situation,'' said Sekimoto, the nuclear energy professor. ``The government should consider whether it can gain the public's consent if it's going for a deal with India.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Megumi Yamanaka in Tokyo at myamanaka@bloomberg.net.