Toshiba Corp said it may need to push back by several years a target to capture 39 orders for nuclear reactors by March 2016, as governments tighten regulations in the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Orders for four AP1000 reactors in China are on target, but approval delays in the United States and others could block its goal to expand nuclear sales to 1 trillion yen ($12.2 billion) in four years, Toshiba said.

Engineers are battling to plug radiation leaks and bring the Fukushima nuclear plant northeast of Tokyo under control more than two months after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and deadly tsunami that devastated a swathe of Japan's coastline and tipped the economy into recession.

Toshiba, which has set up a 1,900-person team to help operator Tokyo Electric bring the plant under control, also said it will tap 700 billion yen of its funds to build new revenue streams and invest in its flash memory chips, batteries, smart grids and production in emerging countries.

The Nikkei business newspaper said earlier that Toshiba would invest the money in the environment and energy sectors over the next three years, as the Fukushima crisis casts a shadow over the prospects for the firm's nuclear power business.

The industrial conglomerate's strategy will expand the company's 2011-2013 capital and research-and-development budget to 1.45 trillion yen, up from 1.3 trillion yen in 2010-2012.

Toshiba also said it aims to more than double its operating profit to 500 billion yen in the year to March 2014, from 240.3 billion yen in the year that ended in March 2011.

The company, whose products run the gamut from rice cookers to nuclear power plants, has stepped up efforts to tap the markets for solar and other renewable sources of energy, as well as smart grids, where demand is seen growing rapidly around the world.

Smart grids are designed to accommodate a range of generation options, including renewables, and to provide customers and utilities with more real time information, enabling them to manage usage and supply more efficiently.

Toshiba last week announced it would buy unlisted Swiss smart-meter manufacturer Landis+Gyr for around $2.3 billion.

The company also announced on Monday an alliance with South Korean wind power firm Unison Co. The Japanese firm will buy some 3 billion yen in Unison convertible bonds as the first step of the deal.

It will raise its stake in the producer of wind power generation equipment to about 30 percent in about a year, the Nikkei reported.

Toshiba also plans to boost output at a lithium ion battery plant in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, in anticipation of higher demand for use in smart-grid systems, the paper said.

Shares of Toshiba were up 2.1 percent in late afternoon trade, compared with a 0.1 percent rise in the benchmark Nikkei average.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo and Arpita Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

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