Platts - The US, France and Japan are working to put international mechanisms into place to help finance construction of nuclear power plants in the US and elsewhere, government officials and financial analysts said this month.
Two principal targets are international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, and national export credit agencies, the sources said.
SOFIA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Bulgaria is close to choosing a winner between Belgian energy firm Electrabel and Germany's RWE AG to make a strategic investment in a planned 4 billion euro ($5.6 billion) nuclear plant, Bulgarian utility NEK said on Thursday.
In August, state-owned NEK asked RWE and Electrabel, owned by France's GDF Suez, to improve their offers for a 49 percent stake in the plant it is building to restore Bulgaria's position as a leading power exporter in southeastern Europe.
PARIS (AP) — Growth in the construction of new nuclear plants worldwide is at risk because of the global financial crisis, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Wednesday, adding that short-term projects like oil drilling are more likely to go ahead.
During a visit to Paris, Bodman said the crisis could have an impact on the "nuclear renaissance" that is sweeping the industry as countries around the globe search for alternatives to fossil fuels.
The government is pinning its hopes on a nuclear renaissance to meet Britain's climate change goals. Planning procedures are being eased and hidden subsidies offered. But the policy is based on a misunderstanding of nuclear power's lousy economics, and will fail
Tom Burke
PARIS (AFP) — French nuclear group Areva is facing a 50 percent rise to the cost of building the world's first next-generation pressurised water reactor in Finland, the business daily Les Echos reported Thursday.
The cost of constructing the plant at Olkiluoto has risen from three billion to 4.5 billion euros (6.7 billion dollars), the paper reported citing an unidentified source.
The German government is willing to spend millions of euros on atomic research in the years ahead despite a binding agreement to phase out nuclear energy completely. But with the rest of Europe banking on nuclear, German scientists don’t want to miss out on future developments.
German Research Minister Annette Schavan said this week she will increase funding for nuclear research. Her announcement may have come as a surprise to those who believe that more money to be spent on research in this field is bound to contradict an agreement to phase out nuclear energy in Germany completely.
Two reactors for CZK 80 billion or for 353 billion?
Temelín - Czech energy giant ČEZ wants to expand the Temelín nuclear power plant with building two new reactors by 2013 but has not published the costs of the project yet.
"The costs of the Temelín expansion may be published only after the contract is signed," explains ČEZ´s web site. Ministry of Environment has already received a study on the impact the two new reactors will have on the environment. The ministry was asked by ČEZ to evaluate this question. "Expanding the Temelín power plant will meet the growing demand for energy in the Czech Republic and will create a sufficient reserve," claims ČEZ. Now, a public discussion on the issue is expected to emerge.
Greenpeace Finland said in a statement Monday that Brussels-based lobby the European Renewable Energies Federation had brought an action before the European Court of Justice challenging the European commission's September 2007 declaration that a 570-million-euro guarantee granted by Coface, a privatised company that continues to act in its eponymous role as the French government's export guarantee agency, to Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) did not constitute illegal state aid.
A utility's credit quality could be negatively impacted by building a new nuclear power plant, according to a report released June 2 by Moody's Investors Service.
The report said that an electric utility might find a 25% to 30% deterioration in its financial credit metrics. The sheer size, cost and complexity of new nuclear construction projects can increase the business and operating risk of a utility, potentially exposing it to downward rating pressure over the intermediate- to longer-term horizon Moody's Vice President/Senior Credit Officer Jim Hempstead said in a statement.
The French nuclear power company Areva could end up paying billions of euros to compensate for delays in the Olkiluoto nuclear power project.
A report in the online financial publication Capital said that Areva could pay the power generation company Teollisuuden Voima up to 2.2 billion euros. The publication based its report on information from confidential sources. Areva refutes the claims.
