nuclear-news

AREVA looks to China to save its nuclear export industry

Areva sets nuclear sights on China http://www.brecorder.com/fuel-a energy/193/1196628/ JUNE 04, 2012 RECORDER REPORT   French nuclear group Areva said it is prepared to put its mid-sized Atmea1 reactor into direct competition with a future Franco-Chinese reactor it hopes to help develop in an effort to sweep into China’s booming electricity market.

The head of Areva’s reactors and services division told Reuters it expects to know this year if it has a role to play in the construction of a 1,000 megawatt (MW) third-generation reactor alongside China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co (CGNPC) and French utility EDF. That reactor would compete with the 1,100 MW Atmea1 pressurised water reactor (PWR) that Areva and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) have developed through their Atmea joint venture.

“If the new product or the development of the product corresponds to a clear opening of the Chinese market, to important industrial returns for us and with the support of EDF and CGNPC, I have no qualms about cannibalising Atmea1, and neither does MHI,” Claude Jaouen said in an interview.

The Franco-Chinese project is in a preliminary phase with EDF, CGNPC and Areva, in agreement with MHI, looking to see to what extent the reactor can resemble Atmea1 and at what cost.

Under France’s previous government, the Nuclear Policy Council last year decided to forge a partnership with China to build a new type of nuclear reactor, widening France’s nuclear range with a cheaper and smaller model than the 1,600 MW EPR reactor, which has suffered from cost overruns and delays.

June 6, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France