nuclear-news

Revenues at the world’s biggest maker of nuclear reactors, which in December disclosed a massive write-down tied to three of its African mines, reached 8.87 billion euros ($11.67 billion), with the reactors and services unit showing a 3.6 percent drop…. Since the nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima power plant in March, order cancellations have been 464 million euros.

Reactors and services, which designs and builds nuclear reactors and is Areva’s biggest division, saw revenues slide to 3.26 billion euros as fewer engineering studies were undertaken in the United States.

Areva has been grappling with construction delays at two of its new-generation EPR reactors, while the Fukushima crisis has sparked a global debate about the future of nuclear power and led some governments to review their energy mix.

On top of that, Areva, the world’s biggest uranium mining producer, is bogged down by the $2.5 billion acquisition of Canada’s UraMin in 2007 and allegations of spying on the long-serving Lauvergeon.

Despite the dark cloud of Uramin, Areva’s mining unit had the most robust sales growth of any unit aside from its much smaller renewable energy business, which nearly doubled