France

SPE buys Belgian nuclear capacity from Electrabel

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

BRUSSELS, March 12 (Reuters) - Belgian electricity company SPE said on Wednesday it had bought 635 megawatts of nuclear energy capacity from Suez's Electrabel, boosting its share of Belgium's nuclear market to some 15 percent.

SPE, partly owned by Gaz de France and Britain's Centrica, said it was a three-part deal.

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French nuclear sector risks serious lack of staff

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

PARIS, March 10 (Reuters) - France, the world's second largest producer of atomic energy, must act fast to avoid a shortage of skilled staff to run its reactors and win a role at the heart of a global nuclear revival.

An ageing workforce, a lack of courses and low enthusiasm among young engineers, for a field that is often seen as secretive or unsafe, all threaten France's ambitions for nuclear power.
"The ageing workforce issue is keeping countless CEOs awake at night," consultancy firm Capgemini said in a report titled "Preparing for the nuclear power renaissance".

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France's nuclear diplomacy

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The recent war games in the Gulf with France, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are connected to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's nuclear diplomacy. Sarkozy has been leveraging France's leading civilian nuclear technology to gain diplomatic, commercial and military advantages with countries in the Middle East, as well parts of Africa and Asia.

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'Dirty bomb' threat as UK ships plutonium to France

Monday, March 10, 2008

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor - Sunday, 9 March 2008 - From Sellafield, an ordinary, unarmed ferry is to transport weapons-ready plutonium – material that could easily be used to make a 'dirty bomb'

Weapons-ready plutonium that terrorists could easily make into a nuclear bomb is to be carried hundreds of miles down the west coast of Britain in an unarmed ship, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

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Price for French nuclear tech may prove too high

Monday, March 3, 2008

With France pushing for greater cooperation on nuclear power with Romania, the Canadians who first introduced nuclear tech to Romania argue the Gallic technology comes at a cost the country may not be willing to pay.

Romania plans to build a second nuclear power station, but its rumoured interest in French nuclear technology may prove too expensive an option. News of the country’s flirtation with French nuclear technology arose when President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Bucharest last February.

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EDF's nuclear output availability falls in 2007

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

PARIS, Feb 20 (Reuters) - EDF said on Wednesday its nuclear output availability rate dropped by 3.4 percentage points to 80.2 percent in 2007 due to heavy works on its steam generators and low production levels at its Paluel plant.

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France and the Middle East: Nicolas Sarkozy's Nuclear Option

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Judah Grunstein | 13 Feb 2008

PARIS -- When Nicolas Sarkozy took office last May, everyone expected him to be an active president. Known for his relentless pace and tireless work ethic, Sarkozy had promised to reinvigorate France's foreign policy, which had suffered from an accumulation of failure and fatigue under his predecessor, Jacques Chirac. To that end, Sarkozy has not disappointed. In a little over eight months as president, he has visited 25 countries on four continents, strengthening historic bonds (America), nurturing new ones (China, India), and above all raising France's profile around the world.

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Russia, France ready to issue loans to Belarus for nuclear power plant

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Belarus counts on foreign loans in order to build the first nuclear power plant, Belarus Partisan quotes Viktar Marakhin, the deputy chairman of the Budget, Finances and Tax Policy Committee at the House of Representatives, as saying.

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France understands feasibility of building nuclear power plant in Belarus, ambassador says

Monday, February 4, 2008

France understands the feasibility of building a nuclear power plant in Belarus, French Ambassador Mireille Musso said at a news conference in Minsk on Monday.

She said that the matter was topical in the contest of effort to diversify energy supplies.

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India's DAE to take 3% stake in France's Jules Horowitz project

Monday, January 28, 2008

London (Platts)--28Jan2008

India's DAE will take a 3% stake in France's Jules Horowitz reactor project under a scientific cooperation agreement signed January 25 in New Delhi. The agreement was signed by Anil Kakodkar, head of the Department of Atomic Energy, and by Alain Bugat, chairman of the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, which is responsible for the project to build a 100-MW (thermal) materials test reactor at the Cadarache site in southern France.

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