EDF Puts U.S. Nuclear Expansion Plans on Hold, Increases French Production

Source: Bloomberg

Electricite de France SA, the biggest operator of nuclear reactors, put on hold a plan to develop atomic plants in the U.S. while domestic plant availability improved at the lower-end of a targeted pace.

EDF is reviewing its business in the U.S. and supply contracts for developing a reactor, Thomas Piquemal, chief financial officer, said today on a conference call. “When we have a better visibility on the regulatory environment and price evolution, we will be in a better position to see whether we go ahead with U.S. projects.”

EDF agreed last month to pay about $249 million partly to buy out Constellation Energy Group Inc. from a venture to develop EPR reactors in the U.S., including one in Maryland. Slumping power prices has cut the value of three U.S. atomic plants that the two utilities own together and forecasts of sustained low prices prompted Constellation to withdraw from talks on a government loan guarantee for the Maryland reactor.

The Paris-based company will search for a new “industrial partner” for the venture it had with Constellation and push for a loan guarantee for the reactor, Piquemal said. The utility in July took a provision of 1.1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) on its holding in Constellation amid a “less favorable” outlook for power prices and the planned reactor at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland....

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-15/edf-puts-u-s-nuclear-expansion-plans-on-hold-increases-french-production.html

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EDF is the nuclear vendor associated with the French nuclear program. Their problems with the Calvert Cliffs project are indicative of a broader set of issues that seem to be too large for the nuclear industry to overcome; this in spite of the nuclear industry getting everything they wanted and more in the way government subsidies and policies designed to free them from accountability that might impact the costs of getting the projects rolling.

This failure is why you are suddenly hearing a lot about Small Modular Reactors, which are properly thought of as the latest nuclear whack-a-mole to pop out of its hole.

The fact is that nuclear is not only not needed, it is actually a bad fit in a noncarbon distributed grid powered by renewable energy.

And yes, we do have both the resources and the technologies; we just need to get down to the business of building them.