Toshiba is set to buy mining rights in Kazakhstan in an effort to secure a stable supply of uranium that will bolster its nuclear power business.

The Japanese electronics and energy conglomerate will buy 22.5 per cent of rights in the Kharassan mine, which gives it access to a maximum of 600 tonnes of uranium a year. Analysts said a deal could be worth tens of billions of yen.

Competition to design and build the world’s new nuclear power stations is being fought by three alliances between Japanese and western companies: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries/Areva; Toshiba/Westinghouse; and General Electric, which is partnered by Hitachi.

The ability to provide a stable supply of uranium fuel – along with building reactors – is an increasingly important factor in winning contracts to build nuclear power stations.

The Kharassan mine, located in southern Kazakhstan, is being developed by state-run Kazatomprom and Japanese companies including Marubeni, Tokyo Electric Power, Chubu Electric Power and Tohoku Electric Power.

There will be a test excavation of uranium ore within the year, with output expected to reach 5,000 metric tonnes of uranium a year by 2014.

Marubeni has a 55 per cent stake in the holding company that has partial ownership of the mining project. Toshiba bought its stake from Marubeni.

This month, Toshiba agreed to sell a 10 per cent stake in Westinghouse Electric to Kazatomprom in a deal worth $540m.

Toshiba acquired the US nuclear power company, Westinghouse, last year for $5.4bn – a price tag that was questioned by some analysts.

Toshiba has targeted the US and China to more than treble nuclear sales by 2015 and reduce reliance on semiconductors, which account for half of operating profit.

In December, China awarded a multi-billion dollar nuclear reactor contract to Toshiba/Westinghouse, giving its technology a central role in the expansion of the country's atomic energy sector.

Consolidation of the nuclear sector comes amid predictions of a boom in the building of plants globally.

According to Hitachi, whose nuclear unit had sales of about $1.4bn, there are construction plans being drawn for at least 100 new atomic power plants over the next two decades.

A quarter of those will be built in the US and are slated to begin operations by 2020.

However, many others are expected to be erected in rapidly growing developing nations such as China and India to meet rising energy needs amid high oil and gas prices.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008