nuclear-news

Electricite de France trying to salvage failed USA nuclear venture

EDF fell 0.1 percent to close at 31.69 euros in Paris. The shares are down 24 percent this year….Constellation was spending $1 million a day on design work for the proposed plant in Lusby, Maryland, adjacent to its Calvert Cliffs reactors. It cut spending and staff after the loan guarantee failed to materialize, costs rose, power demand fell, and the price of natural gas, a competing fuel for power generation, tumbled,

DF, Constellation in Talks to Save U.S. Nuclear Venture By Tara Patel, Jeffrey McCracken and Jim Polson – Sep 25, 201 (Bloomberg) — Electricite de France SA, Europe’s biggest utility, and Constellation Energy Group Inc. are in talks to avoid the collapse of their U.S. nuclear venture, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

The companies are negotiating to resolve a dispute over an option Baltimore-based Constellation has to sell non-nuclear plants to EDF for as much as $2 billion, the people said, declining to be identified because the talks are private. The so-called put, due to expire in December, was agreed to in 2008 when Constellation sold half its nuclear business to EDF.

EDF, Constellation’s largest shareholder, would view the exercise of the put option as a hostile move likely to jeopardize their relationship and a venture to develop new nuclear projects, the people said……EDF fell 0.1 percent to close at 31.69 euros in Paris. The shares are down 24 percent this year.

A delay by the Energy Department in Washington in awarding what’s likely to be the last federal loan guarantee for a new nuclear plant authorized by Congress is weighing on both Constellation and EDF…….Early this year, Constellation was spending $1 million a day on design work for the proposed plant in Lusby, Maryland, adjacent to its Calvert Cliffs reactors. It cut spending and staff after the loan guarantee failed to materialize, costs rose, power demand fell, and the price of natural gas, a competing fuel for power generation, tumbled,

EDF, Constellation in Talks to Save U.S. Nuclear Venture – Bloomberg

September 28, 2010 - Posted by Christina MacPherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, EDF, France, nuclear, nuclear renaissance, reactors