EDF executives were virtually speechless with anger this weekend over
what they described as a unilateral withdrawal by US partner
Constellation Energy from their project to build a French-designed EPR
reactor on its Calvert Cliffs site in Maryland. The Baltimore-based
utility's decision threatens to set back the French groups progress in
the US by two or three years if a solution cannot be found. EDF had
ambitions to build at least four EPRs with Constellation in what it once
sold to its shareholders as the worlds biggest and most attractive
nuclear generation market. But in private, many investors and analysts
are delighted, at least in the short term. Assuming that the EPR project
falls victim to the increasingly acrimonious relationship between the
two companies, EDF would find itself with more time and money to focus
on more pressing issues. In th! e past two years EDF has seen its net
debt shoot up from 25bn to an estimated 45bn ($63bn) after acquiring
British Energy in the UK at peak prices and then fighting off
billionaire Warren Buffett to secure its partnership with Constellation
in a costly rescue deal. EDF will struggle to find a new partner for its
costly and complex EPR reactor, the first new generation nuclear plant
to have been launched on the market, but which has been fraught with
delays and cost overruns.
FT 12th Oct 2010
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ee527e00-d561-11df-8e86-00144feabdc0,s01=1.html
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
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