Hitachi

This article is part of the Nuclear Spin project of Spinwatch.

Background

Hitachi Ltd is a global company, headquartered in Japan, with a significant interest in nuclear energy.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy

In June 2007, GE and Hitachi set up GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy to serve the global nuclear industry. It describes itself as 'a world-leading provider of advanced reactors and nuclear services' and is based in the US.

UK nuclear plans

In October 2012, Hitachi announced the acquisition of Horizon Nuclear Power from E.ON and RWE. The deal, handled by law firm Allen & Overy, was completed the following month. Hitachi said it would start "leading a programme of building new nuclear power plants in the United Kingdom". It also announced deals with Rolls-Royce and Babcock International to help it deliver the programme. Hitachi claimed the deal heralded the start of "100-year commitment" to the UK.

Horizon has the rights to build reactors at Wylfa on Anglesey, north Wales, and Oldbury in Gloucestershire. Hitachi plans to build two or three new stations at each site, which will start generating electricity in the "first half of the 2020s". Hitachi beat off a rival bid for Horizon from a consortium led by US nuclear engineering company Westinghouse.

However, the BBC reported that a senior Hitachi executive acknowledged that beyond the announced acquisition price the company had not yet fully committed to invest anything at all.

Lobbying and PR consultancies

• Camargue PR worked on Hitachi's UK nuclear subsidiary. According to Leon Flexman, Head of Corporate Affairs at Horizon - 'Horizon Nuclear Power is committed to the highest standards of consultation and engagement. Camargue's experience and understanding of energy and infrastructure issues is a key component of our development programme.'
• Westbourne Communications

Hitachi's non-liability in the Fukushima disaster

Hitachi, Toshiba and General Electric were responsible for designing, building and servicing the reactors which directly contributed to the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plantwhen a massive earthquake and tsunami struck on 14 March 2011.

Environmental campaign group Greenpeace has accused all three firms of continuing to dodge their responsibilities over Fukushima.

...companies deeply involved in the design, construction and running of the reactors involved in the triple meltdown are not being held accountable. Shockingly in some cases, they are making more profits out of the disaster recovery. These companies, namely GE, Hitachi, and Toshiba who designed and built reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, have special rights under the Nuclear Damage Liability Law that protect them from product liability should there be a nuclear disaster. Essentially this means they can profit without worrying about the risks of a meltdown, since the public pays the damage should an accident happen.

The estimated cost of the nuclear disaster is $250 billion US, an impossible figure for any single company - even TEPCO, one of the largest power companies in the world. It is why compensation and life support for the people affected is not what it should be, and why 3.2 trillion yen ($43.7 bn) of Japanese taxpayers money has been injected into the company.

We have been talking with GE, Hitachi and Toshiba, however, when it comes to a question of their responsibility, they simply point to their existing Corporate Social Responsibility webpage or report, where they present their charitable activities in response to the earthquake and tsunami. They have avoided explaining their responsibility in the Fukushima nuclear disaster as a supplier of critical equipment.

Greenpeace International's executive director in March 2013 called for the 'creation of a real nuclear liability system, one that makes both nuclear operators and their suppliers pay all the costs of their failures, not taxpayers', such as in India:

Big energy giants, such as General Electric, Toshiba and Hitachi, pay nothing if one of their reactors causes a disaster. All three built reactors based on GE's flawed Mark I reactor design. Concerns that the reactor containment would fail during a major accident proved correct – this is exactly what happened. The flaw was revealed decades earlier, but the problem wasn't fixed.

But the protection system means that GE, Hitachi and Toshiba and other big companies with enormous wealth are not held liable when their equipment contributes to a disaster. ...Absurdly, the powerful nuclear industry has greater protection and rights than the public – the ones at risk of radiation in a disaster. It's high time for that liability to be given back to the industry.

People

• Hiroaki Nakanishi is Hitachi's President.
• Masaharu Hanyu is the Vice President, Executive Officer, Chief Executive Officer of Nuclear Systems and General Manager of Nuclear Systems Division

The Board members are:

• Takashi Kawamura, Chairman
• Mitsuo Ohashi
• Nobuo Katsumata
• George Buckley
• Harufumi Mochizuki
• Tohru Motobayashi
• Philip Yeo
• Michijiro Kikawa
• Sir Stephen Gomersall (has attended Nuclear Industry Council meetings twice in 2013)
• Hiroaki Nakanishi
• Takashi Hatchoji
• Takashi Miyoshi

Website

www.hitachi.com