Nuclear power in Europe

Anne Lauvergeon is used to fighting tough battles, but this time the chief executive of Areva, whose combative style has in the past earned her the soubriquet “Madame Non”, is in danger of facing her final round.

The French government is nearing a decision on the future of Areva, its state-owned nuclear champion, and with it the fate of one of France’s most internationally recognised business figures.

Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation has presented to the Energy Ministry its vision of the scenarios of Russia's nuclear development depending on how the financial crisis unfolds, the state corporation's deputy chief Alexander Lokshin told RBC today. He explained that the move had been made at the request of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, adding that other ministries and agencies were also required to submit their forecasts. The information is to be reviewed at a meeting of a commission headed by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov.

Agreements on cooperation to revive Italy's nuclear sector and give LUKoil a foothold in the European refining sector topped a slew of deals signed Thursday, overseen by President Dmitry Medvedev and visiting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

But Berlusconi, renowned for impolitic and controversial statements, grabbed the most attention with comments about Barack Obama, describing the U.S. president-elect as "young, attractive and even suntanned."

Experts from the Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom are preparing for the removal of spent nuclear fuel from a submarine reactor in the base of Gremikha on the Barents Sea coast. The operation is highly complicated and dangerous, they say.

The spent nuclear fuel will be removed from a reactor formerly belonging to a “Alfa”-class submarine. The operation is part of the Russian effort to decommission and scrap the many retired nuclear subs left after the Soviet period.