In the light of the recent acquisition of Westinghouse Electric in state Toshiba British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), historians may dispute protest reminded of former Westinghouse Chairman Robert Kirby and prolonged battle over secretive and illegal manipulation of prices by a cartel of uranium world. In the 1970s, Westinghouse, determined to conquer the world market for construction of nuclear reactors, offered dirt cheap nuclear fuel as part of its encouragement to the sale of public services. 27 companies customer service had been locked in agreements with Westinghouse for 65 million pounds of U3O8 over the next twenty years in the 1990s. The contracts were for one of the most interesting battles of the 1970 law, ultimately, reduced to a shell Westinghouse plant already. In recent weeks, Toshiba (London Stock Exchange: TOS; Tokyo Stock Exchange Ticker Code: 6502) has been strongly criticized by the acquisition of Westinghouse, May and sell as much as 49 percent of the operation to two other Japanese companies and participation of a smaller U.S. company. Toshiba Sadazumi Ryu CFO said the company should pay for part of its acquisition costs within three years of cash flow over the floating debt of about 115 percent of capital. Toshiba repeat mistakes made by Westinghouse in the mid-1970s during the last bull market in uranium? Today, Toshiba has its sights on the lucrative Chinese market, nuclear power, which on the surface appears more ambitious than the U.S. nuclear program in 1970. Toshiba wants to be a major beneficiary of the aggressive plans in China to strengthen nuclear energy program in the country. And why not? Uranium prices have soared in recent years. Spot uranium was fired in 2005, to a degree even faster than in 1975. It was the year that Robert Kirby Westinghouse was informed by his doctor to not even bother to leave his chain smoking. Things got so bad that Westinghouse. The head of the conglomerate of Pittsburgh did not understand what was behind the escalating price of uranium during the 1970s. Westinghouse incentive plan sounds good when uranium land was sold for $ 6/pound. However, at $ 40/pound, Westinghouse has stuck with a potential liability of over $ 2 billion (1970 dollars) for his offer to provide public services with cheap fuel. In July 1975, Kirby began blaming the cartel of uranium in the world, who believed that manipulate the spot price exceeds the graft development plans of your company. All offices of Kirby in the Golden Triangle in Pittsburgh were the offices of Gulf Oil, a supplier of uranium, which he thought was a uranium cartel member. In September 1975, Westinghouse announced a deficit of 25,000 tonnes of uranium, and claimed "commercial infeasibility" to honor their commitments to nuclear fuel for the 27 utilities. And the trial began. A special report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Kirby's suspicion grew when, in late 1976, received copies of documents suggesting Gulf and 28 other suppliers had conspired to form a cartel to keep out of the Westinghouse Company uranium. "The documents are the minutes of a meeting of private providers of uranium in Australia. In a strange twist of fate, the informant took the form of Friends of the Earth, which provided additional documents if the nuclear plant maker Westinghouse would help the release of imprisoned members of the environmental group in the Philippines. Kirby ran with what was, ignoring his request and began a course of intense dispute. Prosecutor were eventually consolidated and heard in a federal district court in Virginia. During the dispute, Westinghouse took its complaints to the House of Lords in London, the creation of international jurisprudence in the discovery process in litigation. What really happened in the 1970s? Kirby and Westinghouse were caught in a conflict of international trade for a global renaissance of uranium market. Those uranium prices had collapsed in December 1959 when the U.S. government has imposed an embargo on the purchase of foreign uranium for domestic purposes. The blockade came after the nuclear accumulation of the 1950s peaked. In 1959 alone, Americans bought 20,000 metric tons of uranium for weapons program in the country of purchase, approximately 61 percent of Canada. Less than a week after the embargo, the price of uranium around the world fell by 75 percent. Twenty-four of the 28 uranium producers and processors left the business. Two companies of the Canadian State has remained a viable asset to the mining of uranium and sell it. Eldorado Mining and Refining Ltd. had interests in the mines at Port Radium, Key Lake and Rabbit Lake. Membership in the province of Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation held interests at Key Lake, Cluff Lake and Lake Down. Before 1942, Eldorado Mining (later called Eldorado Nuclear Ltd.) is a privately held radio, which this year has been assumed by the Government of Canada and became a corporation. During the Second World War and during the next decade, the company's raison d'être is to produce uranium for the U.S. and UK nuclear weapons programs. In 1956, both countries appeared elsewhere for its uranium. In 1965, Canadian production fell to 3,000 tonnes from a peak of 12 000 tonnes in 1959. Uranium exploration in Canada has taken a break, and only three mines remained in operation. Boom of the city of Elliot Lake has become a ghost town. Without buyers, a self-service Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson announced in 1965 that uranium exported from Canada only "be used exclusively for peaceful purposes." Almost a year ago, U.S. government has banned foreign uranium enrichment for domestic use, before interest anticipate any value for Pearson's announcement. Between 1964 and 1967, more than sixty nuclear reactors have been ordered for the U.S. program civilian nuclear energy. New design light-water reactor from Westinghouse created excitement in the industry. Meanwhile, the Canadian uranium exploration was taken out of mothballs, and production resumed. Hardball antics in Washington upheld the ban on uranium intact, and the world price of uranium reached a low of $ 4/pound. Canada was excluded from the market in nuclear fuel cycle in the U.S., and Ottawa was forced to make reservations for $ 100 million reported for uranium during the administration of President Nixon. By late 1971, Prime Minister Trudeau had reached the end of his rope failing at every step to remove the ban through diplomatic channels. Media reports suggest a number of uranium, the strong countries, held its first meeting in Paris in February 1972 to establish an alliance of producers of uranium, in essence, de facto cartel of uranium. Others suggest it was formed in April 1972 after the Canadian government had given its blessing. The author Gordon Edwards Canadian History (Canadian Nuclear) wrote bluntly: "The purpose of the agreement was to manipulate the price of uranium in secret world using a false bidding system. Hidden Fees were established by representatives from Canada, France, Australia, South Africa and Rio Tinto Zinc (London Stock Exchange: RIO). "Namibia and Niger have also been included in the alliance, like Gulf Oil, at least according to Robert Kirby of Westinghouse. When the new administration has reaffirmed its ban on trade in March this year, a subsequent meeting of the cartel of uranium took place in Johannesburg, South Africa in May 1972. At a conference in Ottawa, May 28, 1972, it was reported that Jack Austin, Deputy Minister of Energy, expressed concern the deal could be considered illegal under Canadian law. However, politicians uranium cartel has given the green light. The alleged price manipulation has been paid. In 1973, the spot price of uranium has doubled. In 1976, doubled again and stayed above $ 40/pound for nearly four years. Around this time the alleged cartel was disbanded to prevent the international anti-trust, the argument that Westinghouse after causing a tsunami of litigation. Westinghouse was desperate to escape liability on the promise of cheap uranium to utilities. In March 1976, the Department of S. U. of Justice began investigating possible violations of U.S. antitrust law by the Alliance of uranium producers. In mid-1977, a federal grand jury had been formed to carry out investigations and possible prosecutions. In a letter dated 12 July 1977, the Federal Attorney-General wrote to the District Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, explains the dilemma of the episode led to international debate and assert the immunity of witnesses who spoke of the alleged conspiracy: "These people are not likely to be the personal jurisdiction of U.S. courts if the Ministry of Justice is investigating grand jury sitting in the international uranium industry (3) They are British subjects, and we have determined that it is highly unlikely that their testimony can be obtained by the existing agreements on police cooperation between the U.S. and the UK (4) Department of Justice has been largely unable to obtain information from these foreign persons the subject of this investigation … "In 1978, the middle, Westinghouse Electric complaint against Rio Tinto Zinc in the UK debated in the judicial system of that country. Obtaining evidence in England is very different from the American testimony. Conclusion During the period, Westinghouse settled with several utilities, but has remained legal action. In 1979, Judge Merhige District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, Westinghouse and ordered utilities to equitably resolve their differences. Westinghouse agreed to concessions that ultimately cost the company nearly $ 1 billion, but closed the public utilities as long-term customers by providing parts and engineering services for a maximum of 25 years. In a quiet environment outside the court settlement, Westinghouse uranium suppliers paid about $ 100 million and provided the uranium business. In addition, there was another poster in the 1970s, posed a much greater risk for developed countries. Since the oil embargo that began in 1973 and throughout the decade, the OPEC cartel has obscured the small uranium. "Saudi King Faisal's oil sword" has a far greater impact on the climate of energy, gross domestic product, inflation and the quality of life, fear that an alliance of uranium producers trying to cover production costs traffic and inventory of stocks at higher prices. Not only the oil crisis, a more serious case, but another episode of the UN Tanked in the price of uranium. In the decade came to an end March 28 1979, a water pump at the nuclear plant at Three Mile Island, about ten miles southeast of the capital of Pennsylvania. It was an unexpected increase of Hollywood-style, that the accident coincided with the opening of a new movie called China Syndrome, starring Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas and Jack Lemmon. Soon, many Americans were convinced that the events of the film were somehow related to the event at Three Mile Island. This has been a dream of Hollywood public relations man. Fanning the flames of media to capture a larger office gross revenue, not an episode about the background (in terms of loss of life, because nobody dies from the reactor accident) has become a campaign terrible against the whole field of nuclear energy. Ironically, the other died in the film (a character from Jack Lemmon) and as a direct result of the accident at Three Mile Island (0 allegedly died). Comments hysterical measured from the moment of a nuclear accident, which melt the heart of the earth, like a character in the movie suggests. You can not tell what the movie was fiction from scientific reality, the message of the film left a horrible memory in the collective mind of the general population. There was a general panic, and nuclear power has been seriously tarnished by the accident. As the dynamics of the construction of American nuclear power plants came to a stop, overflowing inventories of raw materials to fuel power plants destroyed again uranium exploration and mining. It took more than two decades to take advantage of these stockpiles of uranium, about the time it took for the public to once again accept nuclear power safer and cleaner than fossil fuel powered electricity. Why is the bull market for uranium today different? He is the current spot price increased dramatically uranium and different today than it was in the mid 1970s and, when an alleged uranium cartel would have to increase prices at an artificial level? Is it the same factor occurring during the current increase in the spot price of uranium? Toshiba will fall into quicksand same for the remainder of this decade, such as Westinghouse Electric before? (To be continued)