Vincent de Rivaz, the chief executive of France's EDF Energy, which is now in control of the UK's nuclear energy programme, doesn't laugh when I ask if he has succeeded where Napoleon failed.
"It's not a war," he says, very seriously. "This is an amicable agreement between two companies which will bring good news to everyone involved. Will it bring stability to customers for electricity bills? Yes. Will it bring new jobs? Yes. Will it improve climate change? Yes."
PARIS, Sept 26 (Reuters) - EDF said on Friday it had restarted its nuclear reactor 4 at the Tricastin plant on Sept. 25 after a 10-week long outage for refuelling and maintenance.
The reactor 2, which stopped on Aug. 30 due to an incident, was still offline.
Less than two months after British Energy shareholders walked away from an earlier deal, EDF has bagged the UK nuclear power generator in a £12.4bn deal.
Selling British Energy to EDF is about more than just a handover of physical assets.
Nuclear power firm British Energy looks poised to fall into foreign hands after it was reported French power giant EDF has agreed a £12.4 billion takeover of the firm.
The deal is worth 774p a share, the Wall Street Journal said, 9p higher than a rebuffed offer made in July.
DETAILS OF a serious fire hazard at the Hunterston nuclear power station in North Ayrshire have been kept secret because they could aid a terrorist attack.
The government's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has refused to release information about a "specific fire scenario" at the reactors because to do so could "threaten national security".
MILAN, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Italy, which rejected nuclear power 20 years ago, may see a nuclear plant up and running in 2017, the country's biggest utility, Enel, said on Friday.
Italy banned nuclear power after holding a referendum on the issue in 1987, following the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. But the nuclear-friendly government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has pledged to lift the ban and create conditions for a nuclear energy relaunch by 2012.
Scotland's energy minister Jim Mather insisted today that "our people don't want new nuclear power and we don't need it", as he revealed new figures on renewable energy.
Speaking at the Scottish Council for Development & Industry energy conference at Murrayfield Stadium, the minister said wind farms, hydro power projects and marine renewables will mean Scotland should "comfortably" surpass its renewable energy targets set for 2011.
PARIS, Sept 8 (Reuters) - A security incident has occurred at a French nuclear site already under scrutiny because of a series of safety scares over the summer, France's ASN nuclear safety authority said on Monday.
ASN said two fuel units became snagged in a reactor at Tricastin in southern France on Monday morning when site workers were attempting to remove them during maintenance work.
DETAILED plans for how dangerous radioactive waste will be removed from Wylfa nuclear power station have been handed to health and safety officials.
An application for permission to decommission the Anglesey plant has been lodged with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
It brings a step closer the planned closure of the major island employer in 2010.
PARIS, Sept 4 (Reuters) - EDF said on Thursday it had stopped its 900-megawatts nuclear reactor 2 at its Tricastin plant in southeast France for refuelling on Aug. 30.
The reactor 4 at the 3,600-MW plant was halted on July 12 for maintenance.
