TOKYO, March 14 (Reuters) – The United States and Japan have agreed on the roles they will take in a potential joint nuclear project involving Westinghouse and Japanese nuclear power equipment makers, Dan Lipman, president of global business initiatives at Westinghouse, told Reuters on Saturday.
Japan and the U.S. are working to include a nuclear power project in a second round of deals under Japan’s $550-billion investment package that will involve Westinghouse, sources told Reuters this month.
The momentum for building nuclear power facilities is growing globally as nations look to add more domestically located energy resources to hedge against supply shocks.
The U.S. and Japan governments came to the understanding on their roles in the potential deal, including on the supply chain within Japan, Lipman said on the sidelines of the Indo-Pacific Energy Security Ministerial and Business Forum in Tokyo.
“These are very strategic projects that are very critical to Westinghouse and to our Japanese partners. We’re going to continue to work the transactions until projects are identified and ready for deployment,” he said, adding that further details are yet to be finalised.
Westinghouse, owned by Cameco and Brookfield, is looking at building pressurised water reactors and small modular reactors for investments of up to $100 billion, according to a fact sheet released after U.S. President Donald Trump met with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in October.
Japanese firms such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Toshiba and IHI could be involved in the projects, according to the sheet.
“They are critical partners for us, and they’ll have an important role,” Lipman said, without providing details.
Separately on Saturday, U.S. power equipment maker GE Vernova and Hitachi said in a joint statement they have agreed to explore opportunities to work on projects using their BWRX-300 small modular reactors in Southeast Asia.
(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Tom Hogue)
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