Word: nuclearization
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...that national commitment, but the company has also benefited from the ambitions of Lauvergeon, who, as a member of France's civil-service élite, first gained public attention as Socialist President François Mitterrand's sherpa during the 1980s. After taking control of the key state-owned nuclear companies, she merged them to create Areva eight years ago. Her early success in convincing foreign clients that nuclear was the power source of the future earned her a remarkable degree of independence from political meddling. "If you look at what she's done since taking her job, you realize...
...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...
...driving force is China, whose gangbusters economy requires ever more energy. Beijing says it wants to lift nuclear-generated power from its current 11 gigawatts to 86 gigawatts by 2020 - an increase equivalent to France's current total output. China is already adding 14 reactors to the 11 it operates, including three third-generation installations supplied by Areva and Westinghouse. And it won't stop there: Beijing has signed on for an additional 35 plants to be built over the next decade, and is studying a further 80. (See pictures of China's wild side...
...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...
...heave-ho as part of the evaluation, which looked at finances and strategy. The government was also reportedly upset that Lauvergeon continued to resist pressure from the Elysée to meld Areva with private French engineering company Alstom and private construction giant Bouygues to create a national nuclear megacompany...