Energy group Delta, which is still in the hands of Zeeland local authorities, has hired merchant bank Morgan Stanley to investigate a potential merger or sale, the Financieele Dagblad says on Wednesday.
'We are taking a broad approach,' a spokesman told the paper. 'We can continue as an independent, merge or be sold off, and that could involve an international company.'
FRANKFURT/AMSTERDAM, March 27 (Reuters) - Dutch nuclear reactor Borssele has been given permission to operate up to 2033, though the approval can still be contested, Dutch and German stakeholders said on Wednesday.
Started in 1973, the 500 megawatt plant is one of the oldest reactors in Europe. It is 70 percent owned by Dutch generator Delta, in turn owned by Dutch provincial authorities, and 30 percent by German utility RWE.
The Dutch authorities have turned down a request by the City of Ghent (East Flanders) to shut down the nuclear power station at Borssele (Zeeland).
The Borssele Plant is on the southern coast of the Zuid-Beverland peninsular and as such is only around 40km as the crow flies from the East Flemish city. The city authorities in Ghent had wanted the Dutch to close the reactor at Borssele to allow safety checks to be carried out.
A likely political coalition between the Netherland's pro-nuclear VVD party and the antinuclear PvdA party after Wednesday's inconclusive election result will almost certainly put plans for a new nuclear power station at Borssele on hold.
The center-right VVD party led the polls Wednesday with 26.5%. The center-left Labour PvdA party came a close second with 24.8%.
Dominion's four Virginia nuclear units have reactor pressure vessels made by the same manufacturer that supplied a Belgian reactor shut down because of possible vessel cracking, a Dominion spokesman said Friday.
Dominion is following developments in Belgium, but has not been notified by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission of any information related to the incident, Richard Zuercher said.
AMSTERDAM -(Dow Jones)- Dutch utility Delta NV said Monday it has shelved its plan to build a second nuclear plant in the Netherlands, in the latest example of waning appetite for atomic power in Europe.
Delta NV, which aimed to build the plant together with Germany's RWE AG, said the current market climate makes it no longer viable to move ahead with the project and that it will shelve its plans for two to three years.
AMSTERDAM (Dow Jones)--The Dutch Supreme Court Friday upheld an interim injunction that prevents German utility RWE AG (RWE.XE) from obtaining a 50% stake in the only nuclear power plant in the Netherlands.
The ruling is a setback for RWE, which acquired Dutch utility Essent in 2009, but a final decision on whether RWE will eventually gain control of the stake in the Borssele reactor could still take years.
German utility RWE has indicated its interest in building a nuclear power plant in the Netherlands should a new government revoke the ban on such projects, RWE CEO Juergen Grossmann said at the company's annual earnings press conference Thursday in Essen.
"We are interested and we are competent," Grossmann said, when asked about the issue by a Dutch journalist.
LONDON (Reuters) - German RWE, Europe's fifth-largest utility, will fight to take over Essent's stake in the Netherland's only nuclear power plant, disputing a claim by peer Delta that it should sell it on.
RWE does not have to comply with a demand by Dutch state-owned utility Delta to sell on the 50 percent stake of the Borssele nuclear power plant it is buying as part of its 8.2 billion euro ($11.6 billion) takeover of Essent, RWE finance director Rolf Pohlig said in an interview.
A statement by the Socialists that nuclear power is not a taboo subject within the party could signal a parliamentary majority in favour of building new nuclear power plants in the Netherlands, reports Wednesday’s Telegraaf.
‘Everything is open to discussion. Nuclear power is not taboo for the SP,’ Socialist party (SP) leader Agnes Kant is quoted by the paper as saying.
