Companies

Siemens profit warning sends a shiver

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

(FT) Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering group, shed €12.5bn ($19.7bn) in market capitalisation Monday after a shock €900m profit warning led to fears that the crisis in financial markets could be creeping into industrial companies.

The German conglomerate blamed a contract cancellation, project delays and capacity issues for the warning – all issues that investors are nervously eyeing. But Siemens said the subprime crisis was having no impact on its business, a line backed up by other industrial groups such as Linde, the world’s largest industrial gases group.

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Rosatom Ready For Major Expansion

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — For decades, civilian nuclear scientist Vladimir Asmolov lived in the shadow of the bomb makers. They were the elite, their names and work secret, building the arsenal behind a superpower.

While the Soviet Union lost the Cold War, the Russians are back as a nuclear force.

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Finn Fennovoima buys land for planned nuclear plant

Monday, March 17, 2008

HELSINKI, March 11 (Reuters) - Energy firm Fennovoima said on Tuesday it has agreed to buy over 200 hectares of land in Simo, northern Finland, for a potential nuclear plant site, securing its second plot in Finland.

The company, a joint venture formed by Finnish steel firm Outokumpu, German utility E.ON and other smaller companies, aims to build a 1,500 to 2,500 megawatt nuclear plant in Finland and hopes the power station would be ready in 2018.

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UK government seeks power sale

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Britain’s leading energy suppliers have been approached by government advisers to sound out interest in its 35.2 per cent stake in British Energy, which is valued at £2bn-plus.

The government has mandated UBS to help with a potential sale process, while British Energy has appointed NM Rothschild as its adviser. Eon and RWE of Germany, Électricité de France, Iberdrola of Spain and Centrica of the UK have all been asked if they would be interested in acquiring part of the stake, people close to the situation said.

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EDF may swap nuclear plants for Iberdrola stake-paper

Sunday, March 16, 2008

PARIS/MADRID, March 14 (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has persuaded his Spanish counterpart to let EDF take a 15 to 18 percent stake in Spain's Iberdrola in exchange for control of some nuclear power plants in France, ABC newspaper reported.

Citing no sources, ABC said this solution would allow state-controlled EDF to gain a foot in Spain, and let Iberdrola add more nuclear power to its portfolio while Spain keeps the lid on building more nuclear plants at home.

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Tennessee regulators will not block Italian nuclear waste processing

Saturday, March 15, 2008

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee: Tennessee regulators say there is no "technical reason" to prevent a Utah company from processing nuclear waste from Italy in Tennessee, but political opposition continues to grow.

Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions Inc. wants to bring about 20,000 tons (18,144 metric tons) of waste from shuttered nuclear plants in Italy through the ports of Charleston, South Carolina, or New Orleans, process it in Tennessee and send what's left to a disposal site in Utah.

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Putin Beats Soviet Sword Into Atomic Weapon for Generator Sales

Saturday, March 15, 2008

March 14 (Bloomberg) -- For decades, Russian civilian nuclear scientist Vladimir Asmolov lived in the shadow of the bomb makers. They were the elite, their names and work secret, building the arsenal behind a superpower.

While the Soviet Union lost the Cold War, the Russians are back as a nuclear force. Asmolov, deputy head of nuclear-plant operator Rosenergoatom in Moscow, is tapping yesterday's military brains to develop a new generation of atomic plants. Russia's reactor industry aims to compete with Westinghouse Electric Co., General Electric Co. and Areva SA.

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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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Bulgaria Shortlists 2 for Nuclear Plant

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

(AP) SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgaria has shortlisted Germany's RWE Power and Belgian Electrabel SA as strategic investors in a second nuclear plant, the state-owned NEK power utility said Tuesday.

NEK is seeking investors for a stake of up to 49 percent stake in the Belene Power Company, which will own and operate the new nuclear power plant.

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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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