Luminant & Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. Establish Nuclear Plant Development Joint Venture

"This is another step toward the continued use of safe, dependable, clean-air nuclear power in Texas," said Mike Blevins, Luminant executive vice president and chief nuclear officer. "This joint venture formalizes and enhances our existing work with MHI, a group which brings demonstrated technology expertise and a commitment to helping us meet our needs."

"The establishment of this joint venture will cement and define the relationship between both companies and this is an important step forward into achieving construction and operation of the US-APWR at Comanche Peak," said Hiroshi Inoue, executive officer and senior vice president of MHI's nuclear energy systems headquarters.

Luminant selected MHI's US-APWR as its technology of choice in March 2007, following an extensive evaluation of prospective nuclear generating technologies. Since then, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for review Luminant's application to build and operate Comanche Peak Units 3 & 4 at its existing nuclear power plant. The joint venture will work toward the successful licensing of Units 3 & 4, each of which will be capable of producing 1,700 megawatts, or enough nuclear energy to power almost 875,000 average Texas homes.

MHI established Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems, Inc. (MNES), as a wholly owned subsidiary in Washington, D.C., in July 2006 to introduce the US-APWR to the U.S. market. MHI submitted an application to have the US-APWR design certified by the NRC in December 2007; that application is currently under NRC review. Mitsubishi Corporation, an MHI partner, is also supporting this project.

"The establishment of the joint venture between MHI and Luminant will allow the Comanche Peak project to move forward as economically and efficiently as possible," said Frank Gillespie, senior vice president, new plant technology, of MNES. "By having a single joint-venture entity managing the COL and funding the project development costs, we can be the most responsive to requests by the NRC and other agencies as the process moves forward."

The US-APWR is an evolutionary pressurized water reactor with improved efficiency, enhanced safety systems and other advanced design elements. MHI has built 23 pressurized-water reactors that currently operate in Japan and has a 24th under construction. MHI also provides a wide range of maintenance services to the plants once they are in operation.

As previously announced, Luminant and MHI will seek official support for financing from the U.S. and Japanese governments. The joint venture has submitted a loan guarantee application to the U.S. Department of Energy.

 ###