Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. of Japan and Areva SA of France are leading a group that's applying for a U.S. government contract to increase energy efficiency by recycling spent nuclear fuel.
The group submitted its proposal for the U.S. Department of Energy's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Heavy said today in a faxed statement. The group's project is backed by the Japanese government.
The U.S. and Japan agreed in April to develop nuclear-power technology, including the development of fast-breeder reactors that use recycled atomic fuel. The U.S. froze construction of atomic power plants following a partial meltdown of a reactor at the Three Mile Island station in Pennsylvania in 1979.
Paris-based Areva, the world's biggest maker of reactors, will head development of a fuel-treatment center and Mitsubishi Heavy will lead the design of a reactor that uses spent fuel, the Japanese company said. The two began collaborating on atomic energy in October.
Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., Washington Group International Inc., BWX Technologies Inc. and Battelle Memorial Inc. are other members of the group, the statement said. If selected, it aims to complete the project by 2020, the statement said.
