METI Expands Budget for Rare Metal and HTS Technology in F2009

Nonferrous metals division of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) requests a draft budget at 27.58 billion yen for fiscal 2009 (Apr09-Mar10), increasing by 68.3% from fiscal 2008. The division increases a budget for substantial material development for rare metals by 600 million yen year-on-year to 1.6 billion yen while for high temperature superconducting (HTS) cable projects by 5 times to 800 million yen.METI’s nonferrous metals division has lead substantial material development for tungsten, indium and dysprosium in fiscal 2008 while plans to widen target items to platinum, cerium and terbium. As to HTS technology, the division helps a demonstration experiment to connect a 1G HTS cable with power network around Tokyo and aims practical application in near future.