Word: reactors
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...With the long nuclear winter finally over, you might think that execs at Areva, the world's biggest nuclear-energy company, are strutting just now. But you'd be wrong. The state-owned French giant is scrambling not just to rectify a series of snafus at a high-profile reactor it's building in Finland, but also to raise more than $10 billion in new capital and weather the loss of an important industrial partner. All that has raised concerns that CEO Anne Lauvergeon - who fused a disparate collection of firms into the first one-stop-shop nuclear conglomerate, winning...
...Luckily for Areva, it retains a handy lead over its rivals. Created in 2001 when Lauvergeon combined state-owned uranium-mining and fuel-recycling company COGEMA with nationalized reactor builder Framatome, Areva is still the first place that countries or power companies go when looking for all of their nuclear services - supplying and enriching uranium, building and managing plants, disposing of their waste - under a single roof. The Paris-based firm operates in more than 100 countries and employs some 75,000 people. Its order book boasts an impressive $67.5 billion worth of contracts, the most in the business...
...over the initial $4.2 billion budget, and the focus of international arbitration and other legal wranglings as TVO, Areva and other companies involved seek compensation for escalating costs. Analysts say many of the problems stem from Areva's impossibly low bid. "Though getting the world's first third-generation reactor completed will give Areva some big advantages over rivals, the Finnish project has cost it a lot in terms of credibility, and a lot of people are looking on saying: 'You mean if you ever complete it,' " says Barnett. "Westinghouse will complete its third-generation reactor in China later...
...Nuclear World On paper, at least, Areva is perfectly positioned for the nascent boom. In addition to the 47 new plants under construction worldwide, there are 133 planned for the next decade. Industry analysts predict a further 200 new reactors between now and 2050. At around $7 billion a pop, the payday for the biggest players - Areva, Russia's Rosatom, Toshiba-owned Westinghouse, Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems and a joint venture between General Electric and Hitachi - promises to be huge as countries around the world turn to alternatives to coal and oil to meet rising demand for clean electricity...
...Areva has benefited from nuclear power's second coming as much as any other company. But its 2008 profits - $824 million on $18.4 billion in sales - were down 17% from 2007, due mostly to a whopping $2.4 billion write-down linked to construction troubles with its Finland reactor. The Finnish project was supposed to showcase Areva's third-generation earthquake- and missile-proof design, known as a European Pressurized Reactor (EPR). Areva beat out Westinghouse and General Electric-Hitachi in 2003 to win a contract with Finland's main utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) to build the plant. GE-Hitachi...