Battered Toshiba seeks exit from UK, India in nuclear retreat: sources

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Source: Reuters

Toshiba Corp plans to withdraw from its lead role in projects to build nuclear plants in Britain and India, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, marking a retreat as it wrestles with an imminent multi-billion dollar writedown.

Such a move would leave Toshiba's U.S.-based Westinghouse focused on the much narrower field of nuclear reactors and services, rather than civil engineering for nuclear power plants, or their construction, the sources said.

But it would throw into question the future of a key plank in Britain's plans to replace ageing nuclear reactors, and the future of India's biggest nuclear project to date.

Toshiba became one of the nuclear sector's biggest players with the purchase of Westinghouse in 2006, the height of a short-lived boom. But the industry was left battered by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and Toshiba's woes have only deepened - first with a 2015 accounting scandal and now damaging cost overruns at U.S. projects.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-accounting-idUSKBN15I0VG

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1. The Nucular Renaissance marches in....

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2. Blow to UK nuclear strategy as Toshiba considers pulling out of Cumbria plant

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/feb/03/toshiba-exit-could-scrap-plans-for-new-nuclear-power-plant-in-cumbria

Blow to UK nuclear strategy as Toshiba considers pulling out of Cumbria plant

Government urged to seek new investors to save Moorside project after concerns key partner will leave consortium

Adam Vaughan
Friday 3 February 2017 12.29 EST

Plans for a new nuclear power station in Cumbria are likely to be scrapped after a key backer pulled out, creating a major hole in the government’s nuclear strategy.

Two industry sources close to the process said Toshiba had privately decided to quit the consortium behind the planned Moorside plant, echoing sources who told Reuters and the Wall Street Journal that the Japanese company was withdrawing from new nuclear projects in the UK.

Toshiba said last month it was reviewing all its nuclear business abroad after suffering a multibillion-dollar writedown on its US business. It has promised to provide more details about its intentions when it publishes results on 14 February.

The French energy firm Engie, which is Toshiba’s partner in the NuGen consortium, has long been seen as wanting to get out of the project. Its chief executive said last year the future did not lie in nuclear power.

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