Toshiba Announces New US-based Company to Promote Nuclear Power Businesses

Toshiba Corporation (TOKY6502), a leading global enterprise in diversified energy and electronics businesses, today announced that it has established a new company in the United States to enhance its nuclear power businesses.

The new company, Toshiba America Nuclear Energy Corporation, started operation this month, with the primary mission of marketing and promoting advanced boiling water (ABWR) nuclear power plants and providing support for related services. As this business develops, Toshiba also plans to expand the scope of the new company's operations to provide licensing and extensive engineering support related to construction of future nuclear power plants, including plant design and procurement. The new office will be located just outside Washington, D.C.

In the United States, major utilities have announced plans to build over 30 new nuclear power plants in coming years. Toshiba and Westinghouse, a Toshiba Group company, are responding to this trend by promoting marketing activities to win orders for both advanced boiling water reactors (ABWR) and pressurized water reactors (AP-1000) and their related systems. The establishment of Toshiba America Nuclear Energy Corporation as a new marketing base will reinforce these activities, and enhance the combined capabilities of Toshiba-Westinghouse to serve U.S. customer needs.

Toshiba America Nuclear Energy Corporation will start operation with an initial staff of about 30, a figure that will increase as work on nuclear power plants by U.S. utilities gathers pace. Construction is expected to reach full swing around 2011, and at that time, Toshiba will also establish engineering liaison offices near construction sites, and further build up its marketing force.

The new company will also be a vehicle for Toshiba and Westinghouse to exchange know-how on their latest advances in technologies for operation and maintenance (OP&M) of existing plants, allowing Toshiba Group to offer its customers leading-edge, optimized OP&M services. Westinghouse will be the focal point for execution of these OP&M services in the United States, making use of its extensive service capabilities and experienced personnel base. Toshiba also plans to share with Westinghouse construction management expertise that it has cultivated through nuclear power facility projects in Japan, and to reinforce its business structure to provide support for both BWR and PWR systems. The new company will also handle licensing for the 4S, a new type of super-safe, small and simple system for nuclear power generation, a promising technology for future distributed power sources, laying the groundwork for future marketing of the system.

Looking further into the future, Toshiba also plans to expand the scope of the operations of the new company in preparation for the possible participation in the Next-Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) project.

Toshiba is proactively promoting moves to take its nuclear power business to the global level, and positions nuclear power as a cost-efficient long-term energy source, a powerful tool in the fight against global warming, and an integral part of a future hydrogen economy. In addition to the United States, the company is promoting expansion of overseas operations in such major markets as Europe and Asia.