The Finnish power company TVO - owner of Olkiluoto nuclear plant - said recently the miserable news, which had been kept out of public during several months. The delay on third unit construction continues to increase and expand. Recently, the engineers and managers estimate that the French nuclear group AREVA is 2 years behind the schedule, and the really bad point is the future delay would be even bigger.

"Delays in the construction works and in manufacturing of the main coolant lines have an effect on the time schedule of the project. Based on the current status, the plant supplier has now updated the overall time schedule and informed TVO that the commercial operation of the Olkiluoto 3 plant unit can, according to the present outlook, be started at the turn of 2010-2011", states OL3 Project Director Martin Landtman.

The "plant supplier" of new and perspective "almost third generation" EPR-1600 reactor (AREVA) is not in a hurry to confirm or refute the Landtman's words. Certainly, the French state monopole structure takes part now in all bids for new nuclear reactors worldwide. Therefore, Paris prefers to dissemble any news, which could undermine the reputation of AREVA.

Atomstroyexport - AREVA 5:0

The AREVA group has been founded September 3, 2001, by merging of biggest French nuclear companies, including Framatome ANP and fuel corporation GOGEMA. First press-release of new-born giant says that:

At the Joint Shareholders Meeting of 3 September, the shareholders of CEA-Industrie adopted a series of resolutions to finalize the TOPCO project and unify the forces of CEA-Industrie, COGEMA, Framatome ANP and FCI into a single industrial group called AREVA.

The name AREVA corresponds to a desire by the shareholders to give to the group a name that is simple, easy to pronounced and to write, easily memorized and that rings true for an international group that combines imagination and vitality which pursues an objective: "living better through advanced technology"… Less than one year after the project was launched, the structure of AREVA was completed and the capital shared out as follows: CEA (78.96%), Government (5.19%)…

AREVA steps onto the scene as the world leader in nuclear power (AREVA is present in every aspect of the nuclear power cycle, from mining to facility decommissioning, including both reactor and fuel fabrication) and the second largest group worldwide in connectors. With more than 45,000 employees and sales of some 10 billion euros, AREVA possesses recognized expertise in its business areas and controls the necessary resources to forge alliances for international growth.

Well, the name of new group was really simple and easily memorized. However, the second part of press-release made a boo boo. So called "a gas pause" has dominated the whole world, and any talking about "world leadership" in nuclear power was inconvenient - especially, against a background of another company's success. The Russian company with complicate and crack-yaw name - Atomstroyexport - had five orders for new reactor unit construction abroad; and the self-styled world leader had zero orders.

So, the shareholders and owners of AREVA set a task to remove a lopsided score in the non-public and hard competition with the Russian rivals from Atomstroyexport company. Four months later, Finland gave a good opportunity for nuclear boxers, while declaring the bid for fifth nuclear unit construction in that Nordic country.

Finnish Battle of Borodino

In the years 2002-2003, the AREVA group had luck twice. First, when the Finnish government had decided to construct the "Finland-5" nuclear unit. Second, when the Atomstroyexport shares had been filled in the pockets of Russian second-rate oligarch Kakha Bendukidze.

"Do you want to know what happened in Finnish bid? Well, let say in one sentence - whole Europe had waged a war against Bendukidze. The private Russian company had lost the governmental support and stand face to face with French state monster; let alone, that Germans and other Europeans were on AREVA side," says a Russian nuclear expert, who had a chance watch the Finnish bid as an insider.

Ceteris paribus, the 5:1 final score could be easily transformed into 6:0. The hypothetical advantages of the paper tiger - EPR-1660 reactor being existed on the paper only - have been completely graded by the reality of the Russian VVER-1000 existence. At that time, the technical problems in Bushehr and Tianwan have not been floated to the surface, and the Muscovites were busy preparing the forthcoming start-up of one Iranian and tow Chinese reactors. In Finnish bid, the Atomstroyexport has needed the next to nothing - just wisdom of its leadership and a little bit of governmental support. Anyway, the Russians lost, the French won.

The Finnish battlefield has been surrendered to the AREVA group, but like in the Battle of Borodino, the French did not enjoy the fruits of victory when the fog of war was gone. Even more, new and new questions arose to the AREVA concerning some circumstances of its "triumph".

Unbelievable, but the STUK - Finnish nuclear regulatory body - has spent only 13 months for review and licensing of EPR-1600 project in Finland! Such Stakhanovite rate of regulatory work has attracted attention of the omnipresent Greens. In September 2005, the green organizations of Finland have commissioned a report where the EPR-1600 reactor was called as a reactor with not finalized "important features of the safety design". The Greens said that the decision to accept the EPR-1600 project has been done under the external influence.

The Greens also mentioned that the STUK has spent one year only for reviewing of the EPR, whereas their more experienced colleagues from the U.S. NRC request about 7-8 years for similar studies. This might have the only one explanation - the Finnish regulatory was under heavy pressure from the AREVA group and German Simens corporation.

The French nuclear engineers stress that the Finland has accepted the EPR-1600 project with no reference; thus, the Finnish trust in French nuclear technology, they say. One may dispute such an interpretation. It is more justified to say that the French government hesitated to give the license for EPR-1600 reactor inside France preferring to wait and see if somebody else would be tempted by AREVA. The actual state of affairs in Olkiluoto 3 project explains to us that the second suggestion is correct.

In the interview to Executive Intelligence Review, CEO of AREVA Inc. and co-chief executive officer of UniStar Nuclear Tom Christopher said: "That plant was sold with the final design [only] about 25-30% complete. Therefore, we are in a mode of where we're constructing the unit, completing the licensing in parallel, and completing the design, with a utility that requires rigorous review and approval of every design aspect-literally tens of thousands of documents have to be reviewed and approved by the utility. The logistics of that process have proved to be more than the resources of people there to support it, and has bogged down all of the work. That's the bad news".

He concluded: "The message out of Finland is: Don't start construction or get a contract on a plant, if you haven't completed the design".

The Chinese customers have understood that message in a correct way. The AREVA has lost the bid for 4 reactor in south of China in spite of all tight ties between nuclear Paris and Beijing. The OL3 problems have been referred by Chinese bid commission as a source of deep concern.

Elephant Grace

The self-importance of the AREVA has not been damaged due to the Olkiluoto failures. Quite the contrary, the intensity of AREVA advertising campaign is growing before our eyes. The group's logo - displayed bulb - is invariably appeared anywhere in those countries who is even thinking about the nuclear power.

The grace of French bulb is truly elephant though. Literally in all countries the AREVA public relation officers contrive to hit the local sore spots.

"I think it's outrageous, given France's history in the South Pacific, that they have the cheek to come and offer to build a reactor in Australia. It would be a mistake for Australia to invest in nuclear technology, but it would be an even bigger mistake to invest in French nuclear technology," Greenpeace Australia-Pacific chief executive Steve Shallhorn said.

This is not the mere words. At July 10, 1985, the French governmental agents have organized an attack on the Rainbow Warrior ship in the port of Auckland, New Zealand. One person has died - a Portuguese-Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira drowned in the flooding. Recently, the name of the agent who placed the bomb is known; he is then-lieutenant Gerard Royal, brother of Segolene Royal, a Socialist contender in the 2007 French presidential election. Ironically, Segolene is more than skeptical today toward the nuclear power.

Rainbow Warrior sinking has been directly linked to the activities of CEA - French nuclear ministry and biggest AREVA's shareholder. In the 1980s, the CEA's direction of military applications was developing new nuclear warheads for the M4 SLBM, which were tested in underground explosions in the French Polynesian atoll of Moruroa. Greenpeace was opposed to testing and had planned to lead a flotilla of ships to the atoll to protest against the test. The Rainbow Warrior was the flagship of the Greenpeace fleet.

Does anybody doubt that the recent wish of AREVA group to "assist" the Australians in nuclear power developing causes the righteous indignation in the green continent? "With due respect to our friends from France, there would be a great deal of concern - given the French nuclear testing which occurred in the Pacific - about any involvement... in the nuclear fuel cycle in Australia," opposition environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said.

The similar tactlessness was happened in Canada, where the self-styled world nuclear leader has explored the grounds with the object to buy the AECL corporation.

For the record, the Crown corporation is a subject of national pride for many generations of Canadians. The AECL engineers are coming on the indigenous way; they found a possibility to design and construct the effective and economically viable heavy water CANDU reactors. All other D₂O reactors in the world are either acquired from Canada or cloned from Canadian technologies. So, the suggestion to sell the AECL corporation to its direct rivals - direct because the ARWVA groups has intention to compete AECL even in Ontario province - has been met in Canada with evident displeasure.

The French nuclear group has found a way to irritate even the Russian nuclear companies. The previous leadership of Russian nuclear ministry - Minatom/Rosatom - has received a proposal from Paris to cancel the VVER-1500 reactor program and replace it with EPR-1600 reactors. Fortunately, the new team was coming in Rosatom, and the French plans were gave up for lost.

Tongue-in-cheek Partnership

Interestingly, the former chief of Russian nuclear ministry Eugene Adamov has publicly warned about the danger for Russia to be dependent on French nuclear technologies in near future. His words have been published in Izvestiya newspaper in April 2005. Just in a couple of days, the ex-minister has been suddenly arrested in Swiss. One shall ask if the methods used against Rainbow Warrior survive till the up-to-dateness?

Well, the Belene nuclear bid in Bulgaria seems to put an end to the hostility between the Russian and French nuclear engineers. The AREVA group has been allied with the Atomstroyexport receiving the big batch of the orders and contracts related to the construction of new nuclear plant with two VVER-1000 reactors. The French diplomats take part in all presentations of Belene NPP helping the Russians to add European luster to VVER technology. This is very important for Moscow because the westernization of the VVER reactors could be the necessary condition for any future nuclear contacts in the European Union.

Unfortunately, the Russian-French nuclear friendship exists prima facie only, and the AREVA-Rosatom partnership is the tongue-in-cheek partnership. Last summer, the Bulgarian mass-media warned that the AREVA group has the separated discussion with Bulgarian power companies regarding possible granting of the Belene NPP contract to the French nuclear industry alone, with no Russian participation.

Let say in an open manner - Moscow was fully ready to the fact that its "allies" from the AREVA group would initiate the separate conversations with the Bulgarian side for the Belene NPP construction. Even more, Moscow has estimated beforehand that such separate conversations would fail. The reason of failure is simple - the French nuclear giant can not build the nuclear plants with competitive price comparing to Russian companies.

All is well that ends well. The Russian Atomstroyexport and French AREVA group are ready now to jointly build the second Bulgarian nuclear power plant, and all the misunderstandings between Moscow and Paris seem to be eliminated.

But in the far and mysterious India, more and more articles is published in the local press claiming the superiority of French nuclear technology, and the Koodankulam site where the Atomstroyexport is going to win the contracts for two or more reactors meets the unexpected troubles. Strangely, right now the "independent" and "non-governmental" organizations of Tamil Nadu state feel anxiety if the Russian-made reactors are safe enough for installation in the Koodankulam NPP?

SOURCE: IranAtom.Ru, Yuri Khmylov

DATE: Feb 13, 2007

Topics: NPP, Europe, France, AREVA