Hitachi Ltd. (6501.TO) is taking a GBP670 million ($1.1 billion) gamble in its acquisition of a United Kingdom nuclear-power plant joint venture despite its unclear time schedule and revenue outlook, as the Japanese industrial-electronics conglomerate looks to promote its proprietary technology for nuclear reactors.

Late last month, Hitachi said that it would buy British venture Horizon Nuclear Power Ltd. from Germany 's RWE AG (RWE.XE) and E.ON AG (EOAN.XE), who put Horizon up for sale in March after Germany accelerated its planned exit from nuclear energy in response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in northern Japan .

The Horizon project envisages the building and operation of four to six new nuclear plants at two U.K. sites.

The deal surprised some in the industry, since Hitachi doesn't operate nuclear plants, and its reactor design hasn't been approved by the U.K. government.

"We are a plant maker. We made this acquisition because we wanted a place to build our plants," Masaharu Hanyu, the general manager of Hitachi 's Nuclear Systems Division, told reporters at a press conference. "We bought it because we can build BWRs."

Boiling Water Reactor technology so far has been used almost exclusively in Japan and the U.S. Japan's nuclear-power program is at a near standstill, except for two projects already under construction, while the potentially more lucrative U.S. market is seeing reduced interest in nuclear technology due to a glut of natural gas that makes conventional thermal units more profitable.

To date, Hitachi has only manufactured BWRs based on a General Electric Co. (GE) design. One of the six units at Fukushima was equipped by Hitachi , with all six being General Electric designs.

The U.K. government has placed nuclear power at the core of its energy policy to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

But it has apparently offered few incentives to lower the risks for Hitachi, as it hasn't yet decided on the price it will guarantee for electricity generated by nuclear-power plants and hasn't yet authorized Hitachi's BWR technology for use in the U.K.

The price guarantee and time taken to approve Hitachi's BWR technology "will have a potentially large impact on the profitability of the project," said Tomoko Murakami, an expert in nuclear power at the government-affiliated Institute of Energy Economics think tank.

Asked about these exposures, Mr. Hanyu said Hitachi has already factored in a five-year application period to obtain authorization for the technology. He said Hitachi would also look to bring in external partners, although he didn't identify potential candidates.

On Oct. 30, Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (RR.LN) and engineering support services company Babcock International Group PLC (BAB.LN) said they had reached preliminary collaboration agreements with Hitachi to support its delivery of new nuclear reactors in the U.K.

In its quest for new business overseas, Hitachi approached several other European countries, including Poland, Finland and Lithuania, even before the Fukushima accident undercut the domestic market.

In Lithuania , Hitachi was selected by the government as the preferred bidder for a EUR6 billion ($7.6 billion) nuclear-power plant project. But in an October referendum, voters overwhelmingly rejected the ruling Christian Democrat party's plan, leaving the status of the project uncertain.

Hitachi 's Japanese competitors have also been hit by sagging demand for nuclear plants after the Fukushima accident, but not as severely as Hitachi .

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (7011.TO) produces rival pressurized water reactors. The company has built 24 plants in Japan and supplied parts for around 50 plants in 11 countries. Toshiba Corp. (6502.TO) produces both BWRs and PWRs. It has built 112 plants in 10 countries, including Japan .

The trend toward a greater role by manufacturers is expected to spread. As more emerging countries seek to build nuclear plants, the manufacturers are now being asked to take a stake as investors rather than just sign on as contractors, said Ms. Murakami of the Institute of Energy Economics. But it is still rare for a plant manufacturer such as Hitachi to buy an entire project, she said.

Whatever the risks, Yukihiko Shimada, senior equity analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities, thinks Hitachi can afford the gamble.

"The ultimate risk is the GBP670 million" Hitachi will use to buy the project, and "its financial position is strong enough to sustain even if it is forced to write it off," Mr. Shimada said.

Considering the woes hitting much of Japan 's electronics industry, Hitachi has been a notable exception. It posted a Y145.4 billion extraordinary profit Hitachi in the financial year ended March 31 thanks to the sale of its hard disk drive business to Western Digital. " Hitachi will have a roughly half of the extraordinary profit even after paying for Horizon," Mr. Shimada said.

For the first six months of this financial year, it posted an operating profit of Y163.6 billion and revenue of Y4.36 trillion.

Business terms aside, Hitachi 's Mr. Hanyu said he wants to use the Horizon project to make BWR technology "well known globally."

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