IHI Corp. will participate in a project to develop small modular reactors in Idaho, investing 20 million dollars (about 2.2 billion yen) in NuScale Power, LLC, a U.S. start-up that is leading the project.
IHI aims to bolster its business operations overseas, as it is becoming more difficult to build new nuclear power plants in Japan after the 2011 accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The stake held by IHI will be in the 1% range, and the company will consider investing up to an additional 20 million dollars. JGC Holdings Corp., a major plant operator, has already invested 40 million dollars in NuScale Power.
Already under way in the northwestern U.S. state, the project aims to build -- with the support of the U.S. government as well -- a new nuclear power plant with an output of around 600,000 kilowatts, for an envisaged start of operations in 2029.
IHI is expected to supply reactor containment vessels and cooperate with the project on technology matters.
It has been supplying equipment for nuclear power plants since the 1950s and is the world's top manufacturer of pressure vessels, the core component of boiling water reactors, the type at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
