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AREVA’s untested nuclear reactors not likely to go ahead in Canada

.…they do not believe the Areva-New Brunswick project will see the light of day.New Brunswick is too small for such an expensive nuclear reactor and does not need the power to meet its own power usage, they argued. “The designs Areva is proposing are untested prototypes so I doubt the private sector would ever assume the risks,”….(CAnada) N.B. overhaul attracts skeptics, Nicolas Van Praet, Financial Post ·  , Jul. 8, 2010 Paris-based Areva SA, the world’s biggest builder of nuclear reactors, said it will study the feasibility of building a second nuclear generating station in New Brunswick and of creating a new “clean energy” park on the same site.

Officials with Areva and the New Brunswick government announced Thursday they had signed a letter of intent to examine the new energy development……Point Lepreau nuclear plant, built by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., has been a particular source of frustration and is currently out of service.

………..Tapping French expertise underscores the difficult relationship New Brunswick has had with AECL, and is a sign its Canadian reactor design is a “dead man walking,” said Shawn-Patrick Stensil, energy and climate campaigner for Greenpeace Canada……
Both Mr. Stensil and Tom Adams, an independent energy consultant based in Toronto, said they do not believe the Areva-New Brunswick project will see the light of day.

New Brunswick is too small for such an expensive nuclear reactor and does not need the power to meet its own power usage, they argued.

“The designs Areva is proposing are untested prototypes so I doubt the private sector would ever assume the risks,” Mr. Stensil said in an email.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s last month downgraded the company’s debt to a BBB+ rating, citing a US$491-million charge it is taking for cost overruns at a nuclear plant project in Finland.

“I don’t take the Areva proposal that seriously,” Mr. Adams said. “There’s no natural market for the power. The competition from natural gas has really knocked nuclear out of the running very substantially.”…

July 10, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, Canada | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear technology, reactors, uranium