By Koichi Kuranuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Writer
IHI Corp. is expected to see its sales in the nuclear power business be significantly higher than expected for fiscal 2025, Noriaki Ozawa, a managing executive officer of the company, said during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun. He oversees the resources, energy and environment segments at the company.
For IHI, the nuclear power business is one of its core revenue pillars, with the sales previously projected at 48.6 billion yen for the fiscal year.
"We have seen strong sales from safety measure construction projects such as Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd.'s nuclear fuel cycle facility, Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s Onagawa nuclear power plant and Chugoku Electric Power Co.'s Shimane nuclear power plant," Ozawa said. Japan Nuclear Fuel's spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant is expected to be completed within fiscal 2026.
Overseas projects are also increasing. Plans to introduce small modular reactors (SMRs), a type of next-generation reactors, are progressing, and efforts toward practical application are gaining momentum in a number of countries.
Ozawa also said that the target of 100 billion yen in nuclear power business sales in the 2030s "could be achieved ahead of schedule."
IHI's nuclear business mainly involves boiling water reactors (BWRs). In addition to last year's restarts of the Onagawa plant in Miyagi Prefecture and the Shimane plant in Shimane Prefecture, the potential restarts of Chubu Electric Power Co.'s Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture and Electric Power Development Co. (J-POWER)'s Oma nuclear power plant in Aomori Prefecture are in sight. BWR-related construction work is thus expected to surge. IHI plans to expand its nuclear power business workforce from the current 800 to 1,000 personnel as soon as possible.
Furthermore, IHI possesses a unique technology in the nuclear fuel cycle that has been promoted by the Japanese government. Regarding the method for processing vitrified waste, which is created to stably contain and manage high-level radioactive waste ultimately generated in the nuclear fuel cycle, Ozawa said, "(This is) IHI's one-of-a-kind technology."
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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.
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October 08, 2025 03:40 ET (07:40 GMT)
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