EDF

Areva rethinks strategy after ditching targets

Thursday, November 20, 2014

PARIS (Reuters) - Areva must consider radical restructuring options after it abandoned financial targets in the face of continuing delays, writedowns and losses from its nuclear operations, analysts said, after the firm's shares plunged on Wednesday.

The state-owned group issued a third profit warning in four months, said it would review its funding options and dropped its 2015-16 financial targets, blaming delays to its Finnish Olkiluoto reactor, the slow restart of Japan's reactors and a lackluster nuclear market.

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France ousts pro-nuclear head of power group EDF

Thursday, October 16, 2014

President Francois Hollande ousted the pro-nuclear boss of France's main power utility EDF on Wednesday, replacing him with the head of defence electronics firm Thales a day after a new pro-renewables policy became law.

Outgoing Chairman and Chief Executive Henri Proglio had been seeking to renew a mandate that expires next month.

But his pro-nuclear views and status as a 2009 appointee of conservative former president Nicolas Sarkozy sat uncomfortably with the policy of Hollande's Socialist administration, which pushed through a new law on Wednesday that caps nuclear production at the current level.

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Austrian minister for legal action against EU over UK nuclear plant

Friday, September 26, 2014

(Reuters) - Austria's environment minister would back legal steps to annul any European Union decision to clear British plans to build a nuclear plant with French utility EDF.

The project at Hinkley Point in southwest England is crucial for Britain's plan to replace a fifth of its ageing nuclear power and coal plants over the coming decade. France sees it as a major export contract that will boost its nuclear industry.

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EU regulators set to clear Britain's 19 billion euro nuclear project - sources

Thursday, September 18, 2014

(Reuters) - European Union state aid regulators are set to approve Britain's 19-billion-euro (£15 billion) plan to build a nuclear plant with French utility EDF, several people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The case is important for Britain, which wants to replace a fifth of its ageing nuclear power and coal plants over the coming decade, and for France, whose nuclear sector would benefit from the major export contract.

Other EU countries such as Germany, which is phasing out nuclear energy, and pro-nuclear Lithuania and Poland are also following the case for guidance on the level of state aid allowed for such projects.

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Safety alert shuts down Torness nuclear reactor

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

A nuclear reactor at Torness power plant has been shut down after a safety alert was triggered.

The incident at the plant, which is one of Scotland’s main power stations, happened just weeks after £30 million was spent on the same reactor to get it back online.

The shutdown means the power station is now only pumping out around a quarter of the energy it usually produces as the second reactor is currently working at a reduced capacity ahead of scheduled maintenance work.

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France caught between nuclear cliff and investment wall

Thursday, May 1, 2014

PARIS, April 30 (Reuters) - France must decide in the next few years whether it wants to continue its nuclear-driven energy policy at a cost of up to 300 billion euros ($415 billion) or if it wants to embark on an equally costly route towards using other fuels.

Most of the country's 58 nuclear reactors were built during a short period in the 1980s, and about half will reach their designed age limits of 40 in the 2020s, pushing France towards what industry calls "the nuclear cliff."

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Nuclear industry says weak carbon price justifies state funding

Monday, April 14, 2014

BRUSSELS, April 10 (Reuters) - FORATOM, which represents Europe's nuclear industry, said new atomic power generation will need financial support as long as carbon prices are low and hit back at EU regulators' criticism of funding for a plant to be built by EDF.

The European Commission, the EU regulator, has launched an in-depth investigation into Britain's plan to provide public funding for a 19 billion euro ($26.37 billion) nuclear plant to be built at Hinkley Point in Britain.

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Exclusive: Dungeness nuclear power station quietly taken offline for five months over fears of Fukushima-style flood disaster

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

The energy giant EDF has been accused of playing down the threat of flooding at Dungeness after it emerged that one of the nuclear power plant’s reactors was quietly shut down for five months last year after experts identified risk of a Fukushima-style disaster.

EDF closed the reactor on the Kent coast on 22 May to allow work on a new flood protection wall, after alerting the Office of Nuclear Regulation that without urgent work the site was at risk of being inundated by sea water.

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Brussels says state aid deal for Hinkley Point is illegal

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Plans by EDF Energy to build Britain's first nuclear reactor for a generation were in disarray last night after Brussels said that the controversial subsidy deal agreed with the Government could amount to illegal state aid.

In a withering initial assessment, the European Commission said that consumers would end up paying up to £17.6 billion of "super-normal" subsidies via their energy bills to EDF Energy, which is controlled by the French Government.

Its most damning objection was that the subsidies were entirely unnecessary, since nuclear power would become economic by the end of the next decade, according to the Government's own forecasts.

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EDF may extend nuclear plant depreciation - paper

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Nov 12 (Reuters) - French state-controlled utility EDF will consider extending the depreciation period for its nuclear plants, its chief executive told a newspaper, potentially freeing up cash for the country's promised shift towards greener energy.

Sources close to the matter told Reuters in September that France could help finance a drive for more renewable energy by extending the depreciation period of EDF's nuclear plants, which would boost EDF's profit and the dividends it pays the government.

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