TOKYO -- General Electric and Hitachi said Thursday they will sell a Canada-based nuclear power venture, effectively bowing out of heavy-water reactors to focus on more popular light-water types.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Canada will be sold to BWXT Canada, a subsidiary of BWX Technologies, for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is expected to be completed this year.

The 60-40 venture between GE and Hitachi provides equipment, services and fuel for Canadian-designed heavy-water reactors. It likely logs annual sales totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. The Toronto-based company employs about 350 people at three locations in Canada.

Unlike light-water reactors, which use normal water as a coolant, heavy-water reactors use a special type of water containing the hydrogen isotope deuterium. Since weapons-grade plutonium can be extracted more easily from these reactors, they are used by only a few countries, such as Canada and India.

Most nations prefer light-water reactors, including boiling water reactors like those built by GE and Hitachi as well as the pressurized water type favored by Toshiba unit Westinghouse Electric and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Given this trend, GE and Hitachi see little reason to remain in the relatively niche market of Canadian heavy-water reactors.

Hitachi operates its overseas nuclear-power business through joint ventures with GE. It plans to build at least four new reactors in the U.K. and is seeking orders in Lithuania. But many Japanese reactors remain offline in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, and overseas construction is sluggish with the exception of China. Hitachi is adapting to this tough environment by using its resources more selectively and streamlining research and development.

(Nikkei)