Japan is a world leader in nuclear reactor technology. That lead, however, is threatened by China, France, Korea and Russia. Moreover, failure in the American State of Texas might be the end for Japanese vendors of commercial nuclear reactors; companies which have been spearheading expansion of Japan’s globe-leading industries. This failure is threatened not by mistakes by the companies themselves, but rather by the lack of political will and foresight of the U.S. Government, a government that has lacked the leadership to pass a carbon tax and not had the vision to appropriate adequate financing for nuclear power. Fortunately, there still is time for the Japanese nuclear industry to act to save itself, and, ironically, to save America as well from its short-sighted ways.
The solution isn’t complicated—but it is not inexpensive either. It will require Japanese vendors to take the lead and secure financing for plant construction and commitments for the power produced. Only by making sure these plants are constructed as planned will Japan secure its future in this developing industry. What’s more, if the world market for carbon-free energy continues to develop as anticipated, an added benefit of a commitment to take the output of these plants may be a nice additional profit in the merchant energy market.
This article will summarize the Who, What and How the Texas projects have failed or are likely to fail and steps that can still be taken to alter the current trajectory. Japanese companies had started down the right path, and they thought they had closed sales on three nuclear projects proposed to be built in Texas. Celebration of these deals may have been premature as one project is dead, another project was ordered by a company that now lacks the balance sheet to complete it, and the last project developer appears unlikely to be able to secure financing. Having recently lost out on nuclear projects in the middle east, Japan’s success in the U.S. market is critical to demonstrating it can deliver nuclear projects in a world market and compete effectively against the Chinese, French, Koreans and Russians.
