Chubu Electric Power Co. agreed to invest in US nuclear technology company NuScale Power Corp., as the Japanese utility follows the government’s lead in making greater use of atomic power.
(Bloomberg) — Chubu Electric Power Co. agreed to invest in US nuclear technology company NuScale Power Corp., as the Japanese utility follows the government’s lead in making greater use of atomic power.
Chubu has entered into an agreement to acquire NuScale shares from Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the firm said in a statement Thursday. JBIC last year invested $110 million in NuScale through an investment vehicle that included infrastructure construction service provider JGC Holdings Corp. and heavy-machinery maker IHI Corp.
Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Portland, Oregon-based NuScale develops small modular reactors, or SMRs, which have less capacity than a typical nuclear power plant. The systems are cheaper and faster to build, which proponents say could constitute the next wave of nuclear projects.
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“It is important to secure all options for the sustainable use of nuclear power generation, which is indispensable for realizing a decarbonized society,” Hiroki Sato, Chubu Electric’s senior managing executive officer, said in the statement.
The Japanese government has shifted toward an expansion of nuclear power since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as it seeks energy security. The country aims to avoid new strains on power grids from extreme weather, and to curb its reliance on energy imports. It not only wants to restart reactors that have been shut by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, but also to build new plants that use next-generation technologies.
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