Mitsubishi, Areva to bid for US nuclear project

TOKYO: Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and France's Areva have jointly bid for a multi-million-dollar research and development project on a US nuclear fuel cycle programme, a spokesman said on Friday.   

The United States is set to resume building nuclear power plants after a gap of more than two decades amid growing concern about high oil prices and greenhouse gas emissions.   

Under the plan, Japan's top heavy machinery maker will mainly work on fast breeder reactors -- which are in part driven by plutonium fuel -- while Areva will build facilities to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, said Mitsubishi spokesman Hideo Ikuno. Mitsubishi plans to introduce a loop-type fast reactor that uses liquid-metal sodium for the reactor coolant, the spokesman said.   

The Japanese and French governments have agreed to support the planned alliance, which will also include several US energy firms, Ikuno said.   

US President George W. Bush's administration has given the go-ahead for the construction of nuclear power plants which have been frozen since a major accident at Three Mile Island in 1979.   

The US Energy Department is seeking initial research plans budgeted at 7.4 billion yen ($60 million) for the new project and will select several candidates around August.   

Mitsubishi Heavy, which has worked with fast breeder technology since the 1960s, is responsible for developing core parts of domestic reactors, including the Monju reactor in central Fukui prefecture.   

It was selected in April as the main builder for Monju's successor, scheduled to start operation in 2025.