TOKYO: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. plans to strengthen safety measures to enable reactor restarts, viewing nuclear power as essential for making its business operations carbon-free by 2050.

In a business plan for the energy and environment sectors unveiled on Thursday, Mitsubishi Heavy said the use of nuclear power is indispensable for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to effectively zero by 2050, in line with the Japanese government’s carbon neutrality goal.

The company will continue research and development to put a next-generation light-water reactor with improved safety features into practical use in the mid-2030s.

The latest plan offers a specific strategy for implementing a medium-term business plan for fiscal 2021-2023, released in October, in which Mitsubishi Heavy described the decarbonization business as a growth area.

For decarbonization, the company plans to invest 90 billion yen over three years to create a business on a scale of 50 billion yen in fiscal 2023, while aiming to boost the figure to 300 billion yen by fiscal 2030.

To achieve effective carbon neutrality, Mitsubishi Heavy hopes to establish a decarbonization technology for thermal power generation in 2030 and fully launch a project for the utilization of hydrogen.

JIJI Press