France

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Areva confirms private investigator was hired

Saturday, January 21, 2012

A senior director at Areva, France’s state-owned nuclear champion, has confirmed that he did hire a Swiss intelligence firm to examine its disastrous €1.8bn purchase of a uranium miner but denied that it was part of a plot against Anne Lauvergeon, the company’s former chief executive.

Ms Lauvergeon, known as “Atomic Anne” after 10 years at the helm of one of the world’s leading nuclear manufacturers, shocked the French business and political elite this week when she accused her former employers of spying on her and claimed that she had been victim to a long-running “plot” to destabilise her, directed from the “highest levels of the state”.

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EDF Pegs Nuclear Upgrade Cost at $13 Billion

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

PARIS—France's nuclear-safety watchdog ordered immediate upgrades to nuclear reactors to guard against natural disasters, which Électricité de France SA said could require €10 billion, or roughly $13 billion, in additional costs.

In a review following last year's Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire concluded that no plants needed to be shut down immediately but that steps should be taken as "soon as possible" to improve safety at France's 58 reactors.

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France's Areva to announce big losses-minister

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Dec 11 (Reuters) - French nuclear reactor maker Areva will announce large losses on Tuesday when the group unveils its strategy, French Industry Minister Eric Besson said on Sunday.

"I can confirm that Areva will announce losses," Besson told Radio J. "In all likelihood, they will be big."

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Explosion and fire at Centraco CENTRACO waste processing and conditioning plant

Monday, October 3, 2011

On 12 September 2011 at 11h45 pm (9.45 UTC), the explosion of a furnace used for melting low-level (LL) and very low-level (VLL) metallic radioactive waste triggered a fire at the CENTRACO nuclear installation located in Codolet, adjacent to but separate from Marcoule nuclear site (France, Gard Département). The fire ended at 1.00 pm (11.00 UTC) on the same day.

This explosion caused one worker's death and injuries to four others, including one seriously due to deep burns.

Category: Radwaste Facility France »

Explosion at French Nuclear Site Leaves One Person Dead

Thursday, September 15, 2011

PARIS — One person was killed and four were injured Monday afternoon in an explosion at a nuclear waste treatment site in southern France, according to the French Nuclear Safety Authority.

The authority and local police officials said there had been no radiation leak. About five hours after the explosion, the authority announced that the episode was over. The site, about 20 miles from Avignon, has no nuclear reactors, the authority said. A spokesman for the French power utility Électricité de France, which owns the site, said, “It is an industrial accident, not a nuclear one.”

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EDF delays Flamanville 3 nuclear project again

Monday, August 22, 2011

PARIS, July 20 (Reuters) - EDF has delayed the completion of its first French next-generation EPR nuclear reactor by another two years to 2016, saying it expects the project's costs to rise to 6 billion euros ($8.52 billion).

In July 2010, the state-controlled utility had delayed the commercial start of the 1,600 megawatt nuclear reactor by two years to 2014. It had also previously raised its cost estimate for the project in northern France by almost 2 billion euros to 5 billion euros.

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France includes nuclear power exit among options

Friday, July 8, 2011

PARIS, July 8 (Reuters) - France raised the possibility for the first time of pulling out of nuclear power although its energy minister stressed on Friday that this was just one of many scenarios, not the one favoured by the government.

Energy Minister Eric Besson announced on radio Europe 1 the launch of a study on Friday on the country's energy mix by 2050, with options including a complete exit from nuclear production, a cut in the share of nuclear to 50 percent and a progressive reduction of total electricity production in France.

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EU nuclear stress tests could prove less strenuous than expected

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Europe is preparing new stress tests designed to put nuclear power stations through their paces. It's a response primarily to the problems at Japan's Fukushima plant. But will the tests be as rigorous as promised?

The European Commission is set to present a draft for its new nuclear stress tests next week. While the Fukushima power plant, ravaged by an earthquake and tsunami, teetered on the brink of meltdown in March, European leaders agreed to set the "highest standards" of nuclear safety, with a mandatory round of new stress tests key to achieving this goal.

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Level 2 incident on INES scale concerning back-up diesel generators at Tricastin nuclear power plant

Friday, February 18, 2011

ASN has rated at level 2 on INES scale an incident reported by EDF licensee on February 16, 2011 concerning back-up diesel generators at Tricastin NPP.

Category: Power Reactor France Tricastin »

Bulgarians, Romanians Building Nuclear Reactor in France Face Ruthless Exploitation

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The foreign workers – including many Bulgarians and Romanians – on the construction site of EDF's new-generation nuclear reactor in Flamanville – face severe working conditions, according to French media.

Some one-third of the total number of 3 200 workers of the French state energy company EDF on the site in Flamanville are foreigners – mostly Romanians and Bulgarians but also Spanish and Portuguese, reported French news site Europe 1 citing the France Soir newspaper.

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