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CPS Energy has received the contractually mandated cost estimate for proposed South Texas Project (STP) Units 3 and 4 from contractor Toshiba, however the utility will make no decisions on the project until rigorous analysis of price and methodology is completed. The cost estimate is structured in a range, and it will take CPS Energy staff several days to analyze the methodology behind the numbers and perform the necessary due diligence, said Jelynne LeBlanc-Burley, CPS Energy's acting general manager. "We are well aware of the confidentiality provision contained in our contract with Toshiba and NINA (Nuclear Innovation North America, a limited liability company comprised of Toshiba and NRG Energy)," said LeBlanc-Burley. "If the cost estimate is disclosed prematurely, it places our customers at risk. Our staff will evaluate the information from Toshiba, put it into context and brief our Board of Trustees as soon as possible. In turn, we will properly notify other key stakeholders including the San Antonio City Council."

CPS Energy has received the contractually mandated cost estimate for proposed South Texas Project (STP) Units 3 and 4 from contractor Toshiba, however the utility will make no decisions on the project until rigorous analysis of price and methodology is completed. The cost estimate is structured in a range, and it will take CPS Energy staff several days to analyze the methodology behind the numbers and perform the necessary due diligence, said Jelynne LeBlanc-Burley, CPS Energy's acting general manager. "We are well aware of the confidentiality provision contained in our contract with Toshiba and NINA (Nuclear Innovation North America, a limited liability company comprised of Toshiba and NRG Energy)," said LeBlanc-Burley. "If the cost estimate is disclosed prematurely, it places our customers at risk. Our staff will evaluate the information from Toshiba, put it into context and brief our Board of Trustees as soon as possible. In turn, we will properly notify other key stakeholders including the San Antonio City Council."

Toshiba Corp., Japan's largest supplier of reactors, will spend 10 billion yen ($103 million) buying a nuclear-fuel manufacturer to help compete with global rivals such as Areva SA for new atomic power plants. Toshiba subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Co. agreed to buy a 52 percent stake in Nuclear Fuel Industries Ltd. from Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. and Furukawa Electric Co., Toshiba said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange today. It plans to complete the purchase in May, it said. Better access to fuel may help Toshiba win orders as competition with France's Areva and an alliance between Hitachi Ltd. and General Electric Co. intensifies. Nuclear power generation is set to increase as developing countries led by China and India build more reactors to meet demand and cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

Toshiba Inc. has shaved about $1.4 billion off its price to build two nuclear reactors, but it's unlikely to ever reach an amount within San Antonio's price range, NRG Energy executives said Thursday. "We would expect ... the price estimate that Toshiba will come back with may be outside the affordability range for their ratepayers," Steve Winn, CEO of the NRG-owned Nuclear Innovation North America, said at a financial analysts' meeting in Houston. At issue is the cost San Antonio's CPS Energy and NRG Energy are willing to pay contractor Toshiba to build two nuclear reactors outside Bay City. CPS Energy has promised ratepayers and the City Council that it will pursue the deal as long as it can limit power bill increases to 5 percent every other year for the next decade. This can be done if the total project, with financing, will cost about $13 billion, utility officials say. To hit that amount, Toshiba's costs need to come in about $8 billion. But the Japanese contractor, NRG confirmed, estimated its price at $12.3 billion in October.

Toshiba Inc. has shaved about $1.4 billion off its price to build two nuclear reactors, but it's unlikely to ever reach an amount within San Antonio's price range, NRG Energy executives said Thursday. "We would expect ... the price estimate that Toshiba will come back with may be outside the affordability range for their ratepayers," Steve Winn, CEO of the NRG-owned Nuclear Innovation North America, said at a financial analysts' meeting in Houston. At issue is the cost San Antonio's CPS Energy and NRG Energy are willing to pay contractor Toshiba to build two nuclear reactors outside Bay City. CPS Energy has promised ratepayers and the City Council that it will pursue the deal as long as it can limit power bill increases to 5 percent every other year for the next decade. This can be done if the total project, with financing, will cost about $13 billion, utility officials say. To hit that amount, Toshiba's costs need to come in about $8 billion. But the Japanese contractor, NRG confirmed, estimated its price at $12.3 billion in October.

Japan's Toshiba Corp. said Wednesday it had won a contract to build two nuclear plants in the United States that are scheduled to start generating power in 2016. It is the first such contract a Japanese company has won overseas, covering the projects entirely from engineering and procurement to construction of the nuclear plants, the company said. Under the contract, Toshiba America Nuclear Energy Corp., a US-based Toshiba subsidiary, will build two Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) nuclear power plants in Texas.

Toshiba Corp., Japan's largest supplier of reactors, is in talks to buy nuclear-fuel rod assemblies from Kazakhstan after opening a new uranium mine in the central Asian nation. Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida, speaking in Almaty, the country's financial center, declined to say when an agreement may be signed or how much it may be worth. Kazakhstan's state-owned Kazatomprom, Canadian miner Uranium One Inc., Toshiba and a group of Japanese companies led by Tokyo Electric Power Co. yesterday opened a mine in southern Kazakhstan as the country seeks to supply about a third of Japanese uranium demand by 2014. The partners have invested $490 million in the TOO Kyzylkum joint venture, which aims to produce 3,000 metric tons of uranium from the mine in 2014.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with Toshiba Corp. next week to discuss the safety of its proposed AP1000 nuclear-reactor design. Toshiba's Westinghouse unit will address the commission's concern about the structural integrity of the silo-shaped shield building that would contain the reactor and trap radioactivity in an accident, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko said today in an interview at Bloomberg's New York bureau. Containment buildings at existing reactors were poured at the site as a solid piece of steel-reinforced concrete, Jaczko said. Toshiba wants to piece the building together from sections, he said. "Where the staff has some concerns is how those things are tied together," Jaczko said. "When you're dealing with the kinds of accident scenarios that we look at, or hurricanes or tornados or seismic events, will that structure maintain its integrity?"

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with Toshiba Corp. next week to discuss the safety of its proposed AP1000 nuclear-reactor design. Toshiba's Westinghouse unit will address the commission's concern about the structural integrity of the silo-shaped shield building that would contain the reactor and trap radioactivity in an accident, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko said today in an interview at Bloomberg's New York bureau. Containment buildings at existing reactors were poured at the site as a solid piece of steel-reinforced concrete, Jaczko said. Toshiba wants to piece the building together from sections, he said. "Where the staff has some concerns is how those things are tied together," Jaczko said. "When you're dealing with the kinds of accident scenarios that we look at, or hurricanes or tornados or seismic events, will that structure maintain its integrity?"

Toshiba Corp. has proposed decommissioning four troubled nuclear reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant in about 10 years, much shorter than the 14 years needed to dismantle the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, industry sources said Friday. Toshiba filed the proposal with Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, after compiling it with U.S. nuclear energy firms, including its Westinghouse Electric Co. subsidiary, according to the sources. Toshiba believes it can rely on the U.S. firms' experience of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident to decommission Tepco's Fukushima reactors. According to the proposal, it will take about 10 years to remove the fuel rods in the containers and the spent nuclear fuel rods in the storage pools from the four reactors, as well as demolish various on-site facilities and improve the soil condition.

"Toshiba is still planning to apply this year for federal approval to test its small-scale nuclear power plant in Galena, according to various reports. The Japanese company is planning reactors known as "4S," meaing "super-safe, small and simple," with hopes of starting construction in 2014. "We aim to get 4S orders in remote areas where it is more cost-efficient to generate power on a local basis than use power grids," spokesman Keisuke Ohmori told Business Week. "A great many people are interested." Toshiba and TerraPower, a company controlled by Bill Gates, have been in talks about engineering and research issues related to what is known as a "traveling wave reactor" that would use depleted uranium."

Japan's major nuclear reactor manufacturers have begun developing small nuclear power systems for both developed and emerging countries, a report said on Saturday. Toshiba Corp. is developing an ultra-compact reactor with an output of about 10,000 kilowatts and has started procedures for approval in the United States, the Nikkei business daily said. The new reactor, the Toshiba 4S, is designed to minimise the need for monitoring and maintenance, with an automatic shutdown function to ensure safety in case of problems, the newspaper said.

Japan's major nuclear reactor manufacturers have begun developing small nuclear power systems for both developed and emerging countries, a report said on Saturday. Toshiba Corp. is developing an ultra-compact reactor with an output of about 10,000 kilowatts and has started procedures for approval in the United States, the Nikkei business daily said. The new reactor, the Toshiba 4S, is designed to minimise the need for monitoring and maintenance, with an automatic shutdown function to ensure safety in case of problems, the newspaper said.

Toshiba Corp. has reached an agreement with IHI Corp. and South Korea's leading heavy industries corporation over a business tie-up in the production of nuclear reactors, company sources said Tuesday. The latest accord means IHI, a major shipbuilding and engineering corporation formerly known as Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., and Doosan Heavy Industries Co. will participate in a nuclear power business framework established in 2006 when Toshiba acquired the U.S. company Westinghouse Electric Corp.

TOKYO, June 4 (UPI) -- Toshiba Corp., a conglomerate based in Tokyo, said Wednesday eight workers younger than 18 were unlawfully hired to inspect three nuclear power plants. Toshiba officials said a subcontractor hired the teens for frequent surveys of three nuclear facilities, and six of the young workers spent time in restricted locations at risk of radiation exposure.

Toshiba Corp will take a 52 percent stake in a Japanese nuclear fuel producer for about 10 billion yen, the Nikkei business daily said without citing sources. Westinghouse Electric Co, a U.S. subsidiary of Toshiba will buy shares of Nuclear Fuel Industries Ltd from Furukawa Electric Co (5801.T) and Sumitomo Electric Industries (5802.T) in an equal joint venture, the paper said. As a result of the deal, stakes of Furukawa Electric and Sumitomo Electric will come down to 24 percent each.

E-mails between Toshiba Inc. and CPS Energy and also among CPS executives make clear that the utility knowingly understated the costs of nuclear expansion to the public. Over a period of months during which CPS officials were telling the public the price for expansion at the South Texas Project was $13 billion, executives knew Toshiba was projecting the cost to be at least $4 billion higher. The same e-mails demonstrate anxiety among CPS officials that NRG Energy - a publicly held corporation that is CPS's partner in the project - intended to reveal the inflated cost estimates. "I think your discussion of incomplete cost estimates in public in November is a major problem," the CPS vice president of power plant construction wrote to an NRG official.

E-mails between Toshiba Inc. and CPS Energy and also among CPS executives make clear that the utility knowingly understated the costs of nuclear expansion to the public. Over a period of months during which CPS officials were telling the public the price for expansion at the South Texas Project was $13 billion, executives knew Toshiba was projecting the cost to be at least $4 billion higher. The same e-mails demonstrate anxiety among CPS officials that NRG Energy - a publicly held corporation that is CPS's partner in the project - intended to reveal the inflated cost estimates. "I think your discussion of incomplete cost estimates in public in November is a major problem," the CPS vice president of power plant construction wrote to an NRG official.

Spooked by escalating costs, a city-owned utility in San Antonio is considering backing out of a venture with NRG Energy Inc. to build two next-generation nuclear reactors in Texas. CPS Energy is expected to make a final decision next month, after it gets an updated cost estimate from Toshiba Corp., which will oversee construction of the two reactors. The project is one of the furthest along in a new crop of nuclear proposals, but it is proving unpopular with city officials.

Spooked by escalating costs, a city-owned utility in San Antonio is considering backing out of a venture with NRG Energy Inc. to build two next-generation nuclear reactors in Texas. CPS Energy is expected to make a final decision next month, after it gets an updated cost estimate from Toshiba Corp., which will oversee construction of the two reactors. The project is one of the furthest along in a new crop of nuclear proposals, but it is proving unpopular with city officials.

Spooked by escalating costs, a city-owned utility in San Antonio is considering backing out of a venture with NRG Energy Inc. to build two next-generation nuclear reactors in Texas. CPS Energy is expected to make a final decision next month, after it gets an updated cost estimate from Toshiba Corp., which will oversee construction of the two reactors. The project is one of the furthest along in a new crop of nuclear proposals, but it is proving unpopular with city officials.

Two troubling issues emerged from news that the cost estimate for the proposed expansion of nuclear generation at the South Texas Project has suddenly gone up by as much as $4 billion. That's a 30 percent increase, and CPS Energy won't have a fixed-price contract for the two new reactors until at least 2012. Toshiba Corp., the main contractor for the expansion, may merely have thrown out the inflated cost as a negotiating tactic. That's what CPS Energy interim general manager Steve Bartley suggests it is. Another explanation could be that Toshiba is weak in producing estimates, with the initial figures being too low or the current ones being too high.

Two troubling issues emerged from news that the cost estimate for the proposed expansion of nuclear generation at the South Texas Project has suddenly gone up by as much as $4 billion. That's a 30 percent increase, and CPS Energy won't have a fixed-price contract for the two new reactors until at least 2012. Toshiba Corp., the main contractor for the expansion, may merely have thrown out the inflated cost as a negotiating tactic. That's what CPS Energy interim general manager Steve Bartley suggests it is. Another explanation could be that Toshiba is weak in producing estimates, with the initial figures being too low or the current ones being too high.

CPS Energy CEO Milton Lee and Interim General Manager Steve Bartley are heading to Japan on Tuesday to square off behind closed door meetings with Toshiba Corp. officials to discuss why the cost projection on two new nuclear reactors are higher than expected. Toshiba Power Systems is the lead contractor for the proposed expansion of the South Texas Project nuclear power plant in Matagorda County, Texas. There have been reports indicating that the price tag could be as much as $4 billion higher than originally projected. CPS Energy's partner in the South Texas Project expansion, NRG Energy, will also be involved with discussions. CPS Energy will press the Japanese for a pricing structure on the two new reactors that is more affordable than the current cost projection. CPS Energy wants the cost of the nuclear reactors to have no more than a 5 percent impact on customer bills, Bartley says.

CPS Energy CEO Milton Lee and Interim General Manager Steve Bartley are heading to Japan on Tuesday to square off behind closed door meetings with Toshiba Corp. officials to discuss why the cost projection on two new nuclear reactors are higher than expected. Toshiba Power Systems is the lead contractor for the proposed expansion of the South Texas Project nuclear power plant in Matagorda County, Texas. There have been reports indicating that the price tag could be as much as $4 billion higher than originally projected. CPS Energy's partner in the South Texas Project expansion, NRG Energy, will also be involved with discussions. CPS Energy will press the Japanese for a pricing structure on the two new reactors that is more affordable than the current cost projection. CPS Energy wants the cost of the nuclear reactors to have no more than a 5 percent impact on customer bills, Bartley says.

France may have painted itself into a corner by pushing state-owned nuclear power group Areva to sell its most profitable unit, and could end up weakening the very domestic industries it is trying to champion. The government, which owns 93 percent of Areva, must choose between three bids for the Areva's electricity transmission & distribution (T&D) business -- from GE, Toshiba, and a French consortium of Alstom and Schneider Electric -- each of which potentially hurts French economic interests in different ways. Should the government choose GE or Toshiba for the business, valued at 4 to 5 billion euros ($5.9-7.4 billion), it would in either case end up strengthening a company that competes with Areva in its core nuclear segment.

France may have painted itself into a corner by pushing state-owned nuclear power group Areva to sell its most profitable unit, and could end up weakening the very domestic industries it is trying to champion. The government, which owns 93 percent of Areva, must choose between three bids for the Areva's electricity transmission & distribution (T&D) business -- from GE, Toshiba, and a French consortium of Alstom and Schneider Electric -- each of which potentially hurts French economic interests in different ways. Should the government choose GE or Toshiba for the business, valued at 4 to 5 billion euros ($5.9-7.4 billion), it would in either case end up strengthening a company that competes with Areva in its core nuclear segment.

"Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and Tokyo Electric Power Co. are among six Japanese companies that will form a joint venture to sell nuclear reactors and technology to Vietnam and other countries. The group, which includes Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Chubu Electric Power Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co., will seek financial assistance from the trade ministry, they said in a joint statement yesterday. The companies have set up an office ahead of forming the venture this autumn. Japan is holding talks for nuclear cooperation treaties with India, Jordan, and Russia and has had preliminary discussions with Vietnam. The trade ministry will work to speed negotiations for the treaties, which are necessary for Japanese companies to export nuclear technology, the ministry said in a statement yesterday. "

"A San Antonio municipal utility's public and acrimonious divorce from a proposed two-unit, 2,700-megawatt nuclear power plant is nearly final. San Antonio municipal utility CPS Energy has been trying to separate itself from South Texas Project units 3 and 4 for several months. Last week, a settlement was reached between CPS Energy and Nuclear Innovation North America (NINA) (New York, New York), a consortium of NRG Energy Incorporated /quotes/comstock/13*!nrg/quotes/nls/nrg (NRG 21.84, -0.23, -1.04%) (Princeton, New Jersey) and Toshiba Corporation (TYO: 6502) (Tokyo, Japan) that is developing the two-unit nuclear expansion of the South Texas Project (STP). All that remains is for the CPS Energy board to ratify the deal. Toshiba is the engineering, procurement, and construction firm for STP units 3 and 4. Subcontractors include Fluor Corporation /quotes/comstock/13*!flr/quotes/nls/flr (FLR 42.80, -2.25, -4.99%) (Irving, Texas), Sargent & Lundy LLC (Chicago, Illinois), Bechtel Group Incorporated (San Francisco, California) and Westinghouse (Monroeville, Pennsylvania). "

Japan's Toshiba Corporation expects orders for at least 33 nuclear power reactors by 2015, and plans to expand all its nuclear businesses over the period to 2020, according to the company's president. The predictions were made earlier this month in Strategies for Growth 2008, the company's outline of the business directions planned for all its divisions.