Toshiba, others developing small nuclear reactors: report

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp, Hitachi Ltd and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are looking to develop small nuclear reactors for use by developing nations, among others, the Nikkei business daily said on Saturday.

The move hopes to take advantage of a likely shift toward nuclear power in hopes of cutting CO2 production in a market previously dominated by larger, more expensive reactors.

Toshiba is developing a nuclear reactor with output of 10,000 kilowatts and hopes to seek approval for its plans from a United States regulatory board as early as the autumn of 2010, the Nikkei said. Mitsubishi Heavy has begun developing a reactor with output of around 350,000 kw, it said.

Hitachi is developing reactors with output of 400,000-600,000 kw in conjunction with General Electric, the paper said.

(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Paul Tait)