Japanese giant will remain involved in power plant’s development
Toshiba has ruled out involvement in the construction of the Moorside nuclear plant that the company is developing in Cumbria.
As part of a wider announcement on the future of its troubled nuclear power business yesterday, Toshiba said that while it will continue to participate in the project, it is not “carrying out actual construction work”.
Toshiba holds a 60% stake in NuGen, the company that has been set up to develop the £10bn Moorside project, designed to deliver 3.8 GW of electricity per annum into the National Grid. The site of the proposed plant is near Sellafield, which was the location of the world’s first large scale, commercial nuclear power station.
The decision not to be involved in the construction of Moorside reflects a wider push by Toshiba to exit the nuclear construction market outside of Japan.
Setting out its future activity in the nuclear power business, Toshiba has said it will focus on supplying equipment and engineering services to new plants.
The company will also remain involved in what it describes as the highly profitable and stable provision of nuclear fuel services.
Toshiba also admitted that it will have to write off losses of $6bn resulting from mammoth cost over-runs on two atomic plants in the USA being built by its nuclear construction arm Westinghouse. The troubled plants, the first to be developed in the USA in 30 years, use the same AP1000 model reactors that Toshiba plans to use in the Moorside project that the company holds a 60% stake in.
The scale of the problems in the Toshiba’s nuclear business triggered the resignation of the company’s chairman Shigenori Shiga with effect from February 15. Shiga said that he was taking responsibility for the financial problems in Toshiba’s Westinghouse business.
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