24 Feb (NucNet): France’s energy minister said yesterday that an overhaul of the country’s state-controlled nuclear energy industry was imminent, after Areva said in a preliminary statement that it expected a 2014 net loss of about €4.9 billion ($5.6 billion) compared with a loss of €500 million a year earlier.
The minister, Ségolène Royal, said France’s main nuclear power companies “should organise themselves to refocus on their core business, to forge alliances between major French enterprises and to win bids at the international level”.
The French government owns 87 percent of Areva, and nearly 85 percent of the other big French nuclear power company, EDF, formerly known as Électricité de France.
Areva yesterday cited a number of reasons for the projected loss, including asset write-downs and provisions against losses at the Olkiluoto-3 EPR nuclear power station project in Finland, which is behind schedule and over budget. Without giving details Areva also referred to the Jules Horowitz research reactor construction project, at Cadarache in southern France, in which Areva and EDF are industrial partners.
Since construction began in 2005, the Olkiluoto-3 project has suffered various delays which have seen its projected startup date put back several times from the original 2009 target.
On 31 October 2014 the Areva-Siemens consortium building the reactor increased an arbitration claim against Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) from €2.6 billion to €3.5 billion. Areva-Siemens is claiming approximately €3.5 billion arising for “additional work, disruption and prolongation of the project”.
Areva said yesterday that in view of financial information recently appearing in the media, it wishes to make clear that the 2014 financial statements will not be approved by the board of directors until 3 March 2015.
The company said it was “working on developing a competitiveness plan and a strategic and financial roadmap” that it said it would present on 4 March 2015, when it is scheduled to report its financial results for 2014.
In November 2014, Areva said it had suspended its 2015 and 2016 financial targets, blaming delays to Olkiluoto-3, the slow restart of Japan’s reactors following the Fukushima-Daiichi accident and a lacklustre nuclear market.
EDF said in November 2014 that the Flamanville-3 EPR being built by Areva in Normandy, France, had been delayed, with commercial operation put back from 2016 to 2017.
