nuclear-news

Nuclear lobby looking to “modernising” old reactors, as AREVA’s new ones failing

SPIEGEL ONLINE By Dinah Deckstein, Frank Dohmen and Cordula Meyer Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan. 16 Oct 09

Modernization instead of new construction. Is the new strategy to launch a renaissance through the back door? At first, the chaos surrounding the Olkiluoto reactor reveals that the industry is by no means ready to build new power plants cheaply and safely in the Western world. Utilities, with their massive financial risks, can no longer support such mammoth projects — unless the government steps in.

Hardly anyone had expected a disaster when the French state-owned company Areva and Germany’s Siemens Group offered the Finns a turn-key version of their EPR prototype: for a total price of €3 billion ($4.47 billion)………… the construction will cost at least €2.3 billion more than originally planned. The reserves for anticipated losses are eating up virtually all of Areva’s corporate profits. Siemens, for its part, has already been forced to set aside sums numbering in the triple-digit millions………..Drawn-Out Court Cases

……Areva  suing TVO for €1 billion in damages at the beginning of this year. The suit alleges that TVO spent too much time processing blueprints and other documents. TVO has filed a countersuit, demanding €2.4 billion in damages for lost earnings as a result of delayed completion of the plant. The court cases will likely continue long after the construction is complete.

Meanwhile, executives at both companies have taken to constantly attacking one another. ……. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,655409-2,00.html

October 16, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs | antinuclear, AREVA, EDF, France, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin