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France’s new nuclear firm pursuing SA research reactor deal

14th April 2017

By: Keith Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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Newly created French nuclear company TechnicAtome plans to bid for South Africa’s planned new research reactor. The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) is planning a programme to replace its current research reactor, Safari-1, which is now more than 50 years old.

“We are absolutely interested in South Africa’s new research reactor project,” affirmed TechnicAtome business development director Bruno Vidal.

“A research reactor is a tool that can do many things. A research reactor can produce radioisotopes for medicine and for industry; it can be used for applied research and for pure research. We will offer a design optimised for Necsa’s requirements, when Necsa issues those requirements.”

TechnicAtome uses standardised and certified elements in the research reactors which it offers on the markets. But these are selected and put together in different ways, depending on the specified needs of the client. “We believe that research reactors are role and country specific.

“We are responding to the South African request for information within the global French offer for the entire South African programme,” explained Vidal. (The major part of the South African project is the acquisition of new nuclear power plants for national power utility Eskom.) “Our work package will be the research reactor.”

The establishment of the new company was announced on March 30. It represents the latest step in the restructuring of the French nuclear industry. Areva TA (responsible for propulsion and research reactors) has been separated from its parent company, Areva SA (Société Anonyme), and has been set up as an independent company in its own right, as TechnicAtome.

“The focus of TechnicAtome remains the same as for its predecessor: to be the French company responsible for small and medium nuclear reactors for propulsion or research,” he explained. “On the civil side, that means research reactors.”

Areva SA sold the operation to a new consortium of shareholders. These comprise the French State, with 50.32% of the equity, and three State-owned entities – the French Atomic Energy Commission (known as the CEA for short), with 20.32%; the naval shipbuilder DCNS, also with 20.32%; and national electricity utility EDF, with 9.03%. (Quite separately, EDF is taking over Areva’s civil nuclear power plant business.)

(DCNS could be involved because it builds the French Navy’s nuclear submarines. TechnicAtome is responsible for the reactors that power these submarines.)

The new company has a staff complement of about 1 500 and has annual revenues of between €300-million and €350-million. Its head office is just outside Paris but its main facilities are at Cadarache and Aix-le-Provence, in the south of the country.

France has been restructuring its State-owned nuclear industry, because of severe financial problems suffered by Areva SA, which is the country’s nuclear industrial group.
In July 2015, EDF agreed to buy a majority stake in Areva’s civil nuclear power reactor business, Areva NP. The plans for the sale were released in June 2016. The purchasing of the equity by EDF takes place this year. Areva, however, will retain responsibility for the contract for the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant, in Finland, to avoid any disruption in that programme. Except for Olkiluoto, Areva will become a company focused on the nuclear fuel cycle, including uranium mining. (Areva might be renamed or formally disestablished and replaced by a new legal entity.) The other subsidiary businesses of the current Areva will be sold off, like Areva TA/TechnicAtome.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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