OREANDA-NEWS. April 28, 2011. Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501/ NYSE:HIT) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (TSE: 7011) today announced that they have begun discussions on sharing specific roles and defining actual procedures for jointly implementing measures to support recovery efforts at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company, Incorporated (TEPCO).

Immediately after the March 11 earthquake, Hitachi established a 24-hour “Emergency Response Center for Nuclear Power” on March 11, immediately after the earthquake struck. Since then the company has dispatched approximately 500 engineers and other workers to the Fukushima site and is making every possible effort toward restoring electricity within the power plants. The company has also established a “Fukushima Project Supervisory Office,” and it has launched a joint team of Japanese and American experts in cooperation with U.S. utility firms and engineering companies. The team is now working to strengthen the short-tem measures currently in place and formulate medium- to long-term countermeasure plans.

Concurrent with these initiatives at Hitachi, MHI established an “Emergency Operation Center” and began providing support relating to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, including provision of emergency supplies such as radiation shields and conversion work on the Mega-Float to be used to store large volumes of contaminated water. The company has also proposed medium- and long-term plans that include a contaminated water treatment system, cooling system, and measures to enclose the plant buildings. Meanwhile, as a comprehensive heavy machinery manufacturer, MHI has been studying how to provide support in areas not directly involving nuclear power: for example, robots, special vehicles and aircraft.

Hitachi and MHI will discuss maximum utilization of their respective technologies and of the technologies of their respective partner companies in order to support the Japanese government and TEPCO in every way possible toward improving conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.