The voter rejection of a government project to construct the Visaginas nuclear plant in Lithuania in a nonbinding referendum Sunday is expected to deal a heavy blow to Hitachi Ltd., which signed a contract approved by the legislature for what would have been its first overseas atomic plant deal.
Hitachi and other Japanese manufacturers are hoping to boost their nuclear power plant business overseas because the Fukushima crisis effectively wiped out demand for new reactors in Japan. If opposition to nuclear plants grows further in Europe and elsewhere, they may have to rethink this strategy.
"It is very disappointing because it was the project at the most advanced stage among those being promoted by Japanese businesses," a senior Hitachi official said Monday.