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AREVA in trouble?

Areva May Sue Siemens on Nuclear Deal With Rosatom, Figaro Says

By Francois de Beaupuy

March 4 (Bloomberg) — Areva SA may sue Siemens AG because it agreed to create a venture with Rosatom Corp. to design, build and operate nuclear power plants, Le Figaro said, citing people close to Areva it didn’t name.

Siemens, which decided earlier this year that it would sell its 34 percent stake in a nuclear reactor building venture with Areva, must respect a clause that prevents it from competing with the French company on nuclear issues until 2020, the newspaper said.

Bloomberg.com: Germany

March 5, 2009 Posted by | business and costs, France | | Leave a comment

Did France’s Secrecy Cause a Nuclear Submarine Collision?

TIME by Eben Harrell 17 Feb 09

A collision between a British nuclear-powered submarine carrying multiple nuclear warheads and a French nuclear submarine armed with a similar payload may have been the result of lack of communication between France and NATO nations, according to a former British submarine commander whose revelations were partially corroborated by an official at the French navy.

Sometime on Feb. 3 or 4, the British HMS Vanguard and France’s Le Triomphant collided in the mid-Atlantic. The accident probably happened because the two submarines were not aware of each other. NATO operates a traffic control system that alerts allied nations to the deployment zones of friendly submarines. The system is designed to avoid collisions. But because France is not part of NATO’s military command structure, it does not provide information on the location of its mobile nuclear arms to that system,………………………….French are particularly secretive due to their position outside NATO’s command structure. And past policy-level discussions suggest a concern over a lack of communication…………………………………While the intersection of two sonar-equipped nuclear submarines in a vast ocean may seem an unlikely event even without communication, there are environmental anomalies in the Atlantic that make a collision more likely……………………………………

…………..had a nuclear reactor been damaged on either boat, it could have poisoned the crew and spread radioactive waste for miles across the Atlantic………………………

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1879777,00.html?iid=tsmodule

February 17, 2009 Posted by | France, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

British and French nuclear subs collide

Sydney Morning Herald February

Robin Millard

17, 2009

The collision between French and British nuclear submarines was a hugely improbable one-off, but it was no surprise that they did not detect each other, experts said on Monday.

For one nuclear-powered, nuclear arms submarine to collide with another one in the middle of an ocean was unprecedented and sheer bad luck, they said……………

…………..The RUSI expert said despite the close NATO and European Union ties between Britain and France, the two countries would be very reticent to share information on what their nuclear submarines were up to.

February 17, 2009 Posted by | France, safety | Leave a comment

Areva Fails to Block Television Exposé

areva-medusa1Areva Fails to Block Television Exposé
Beyond Nuclear 14 Feb 09 Areva was unsuccessful in its attempt to block the transmission of a television expose that revealed high levels or radioactive contamination around France’s abandoned uranium mine sites. The program – Uranium, the scandal of contaminated France – aired on France 3 and featured the findings of the CRIIRAD independent laboratory led by Dr. Bruno Chareyron.

Nuclear France – Myths and Fantasies

February 14, 2009 Posted by | France, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

TV show reveals radioactive risk

TV show reveals radioactive risk The Connexion February 14, 2009 FEARS that radioactive material taken from France’s old uranium mines has been used in construction have been raised by a TV documentary.

According to investigators for the programme Pièces à Conviction  (Incriminating evidence), there are many sites where radioactive material is a potential health risk including schools, playgrounds, buildings and car parks.

Very little uranium is now mined in Europe, but France carried out mining from 1945 – 2001 at 210 sites which have now been revealed by IRSN, the Institute of Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety on its website……………………Problems stem from millions of tonnes of reject rock which contained small amount of uranium which are still stocked at some of the sites along with 50 million tones of waste from extraction factories.

The documentary on France 3 also revealed that some reject rock has also been used as construction rubble in areas used by the public, that there have been some radioactive leaks into the environment from waste and that some “rehabilitated” areas where building has been taken place had been contaminated with radon.

Reject rock has been used at sites including carparks, buildings, roads and even schools and children’s playgrounds, the programme said.

Volunteers with Geiger counters have found that some sites where it was used have worryingly high radiation levels.

The programme makers said they had “opened a national debate on uranium waste in France”.

Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo has admitted that uranium extraction had little state regulation and has called on the firm which was responsible for most of the sites, Areva, to “do its job” and to take better safety measures regarding the waste.

Before the programme went out Areva had lodged a complaint about it with the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel concerned that its intention was to make accusations against the firm.

The Connexion – The Newspaper for English-Speakers in France

February 14, 2009 Posted by | environment, France | Leave a comment

EDF profits plunge in 2008 as nuclear expansion continues

EDF profits plunge in 2008 as nuclear expansion continues

Business News

Feb 12, 2009, Paris – State-owned French energy supplier EDF saw its profits fall by nearly 40 per cent in 2008 as it continued to expand its nuclear energy division abroad, the company said on Thursday……………………. Investors were no doubt put off by the plunge in profits and bid EDF shares down by 9.11 per cent, to 32.31 euros, in late morning trading on the Paris Bourse.

EDF profits plunge in 2008 as nuclear expansion continues

February 13, 2009 Posted by | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

France’s Nuclear Failures

France’s Nuclear Failures Greenpeace 3 Feb 09 Hazardous waste, illegitimate and dangerous new reactors and a diversion to the solutions to climate change – here’s why France’s picture of nuclear energy is just a ‘great illusion’…Despite the French government’s global marketing of its flagship European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) as cheap and safe, nuclear energy is rapidly becoming the most expensive way to produce electricity, and its highly radioactive waste poses an ever-increasing problem.

Greenpeace has recently uncovered evidence that nuclear waste from the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) – the flagship of the French nuclear industry – will be up to seven times more hazardous than waste produced by existing nuclear reactors, increasing costs and the danger to health and the environment.

This alarming evidence was buried away in the environmental impact assessment report from Posiva, the company responsible for managing waste at the world’s first EPR under construction at Olkiluoto in Finland, and in EU-funded research……………………………………. No appropriate waste facilities exist – or are even being planned – in Finland, France or any of the countries considering buying the EPR (including the UK, the US, Canada and India). In Finland, plans for burying the nuclear waste that are awaiting approval are simply inadequate for preventing interim and long-term health risks, and will pass on huge financial liabilities to future generations…………………………..The Global Chance report shows:

  • how France’s nuclear programme fails to rise to the challenges of climate change and energy security;
  • how France has not benefited economically from their ‘all electric, all nuclear’ approach
  • how nuclear power is liable to suffer serious accidents – whether due to system failure, natural disaster or deliberate attack
  • how no satisfactory solution has been found for the management of long-term waste; and
  • how France contributes to proliferation, which remains a major risk for global security.

France’s Nuclear Failures | Greenpeace International

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February 4, 2009 Posted by | France, politics | 1 Comment

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