My last blog post deal with the efforts of the new Abe administration in Japan to restart the Japanese nuclear reactors and expand the export of nuclear reactor technologies to other countries. Since taking power six months ago, Abe has signed a number of agreements with other countries to build nuclear reactors for them. There are currently massive demonstrations in Japan by citizens who not only are against restarting the idle Japanese reactors but also against exporting reactors to the rest of the world.
I mentioned the conference that Abe attended in Eastern Europe to push nuclear exports. Agreement was reached at the Visegrad Group summit between Japan and the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia to cooperate on the development of nuclear power technology in the four Eastern European countries. Japan media discussed the possibility that Abe would sign a memorandum of agreement with the Czech Republic to have Japanese companies involved in the construction of two new reactors in the Czech Republic at Temelin. Nuclear energy currently provides about one third of the electricity in the Republic.
Unfortunately for Mr. Abe, during the conference, Petr Necas, the Czech Prime Minister, stated that he would be resigning his office immediately following scandals involving charges of bribery and the abuse of his power. The press release from the bilateral summit between Abe and Necas just made vague reference to a potential for cooperation on technology and energy. Japanese officials refused to speculate whether the resignation of Mr. Necas would have an impact on the Japanese bid for Czech nuclear projects. On the other hand, Czech officials have admitted that the resignation of Mr. Necas might delay final decisions on suppliers for currently planned nuclear project.
There has been intense competition for the Czech nuclear projects. Rosatom, a Russian company was working hard to secure at least part of the estimated ten billion dollars involved in the Czech project. Russia is already supplying oil, gas and nuclear fuel to the Czech Republic. The Japanese company, Toshiba was pushing its U.S. subsidiary Westinghouse’s nuclear technology. Areva, a French company had been involved in the bidding but was disqualified last December because it “failed to meet important criteria” required in the bid process according to CEZ, the Czech power company. Areva is contesting the ruling and is trying to get back into the running.
Abe is aggressively traveling around the world pushing Japan’s nuclear technology. In addition to the deals mentioned my previous post involving collaborating on new reactors for Turkey and an new relationship with the French nuclear industry, Abe has also signed a deal with the United Arab Emirates for nuclear cooperation. Abe is also working on facilitating talks with India about nuclear cooperation.
In addition to the opposition at home and the competition from other countries exporting nuclear technology, Abe also has to contend with political complexities such as the resignation of the Prime Minister in the Czech Republic. It is interesting to note that in 2010, Toshiba was embroiled in a bribery scandal in Russia. Now the Prime Minister of a country that Toshiba is trying to do business with has resigned over bribery charges and the scandal may derail the deal that Toshiba was trying to cement. I am not saying that Toshiba bribed the Czech Prime Minister to help get Czech business but it is not outside the realm of possibility.
Temelin nuclear power station in the Czech Republic:
