Nuclear essential as a future energy source, says French group
Nuclear energy companies need certainty on key issues before they can invest in a country. "Nuclear projects have high capital expenditure," pointed out the manager of the nuclear communications services centre of French energy group GDF Suez, Laurent Furedi, on Friday.
"Nuclear companies need stability with regard to the approvals and regulatory processes, and so on."
GDF Suez is convinced that nuclear energy is, and will be, essential as a source of power, across the world. "Nuclear is not the only solution, but it is part of the solution," he said.
He cited the fact that all but one of the European countries that had decided to phase out nuclear power have now effectively abandoned that policy by deciding to keep nuclear reactors in service. The exception is Germany, but the issue is now being debated there.
It is perhaps important to point out that GDF Suez does not expect to benefit from South Africa's programme to build new pressurised water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plants. "We don't have much of a presence in South Africa. We were not part of the call for tenders launched a few years ago and on hold at the moment," he stated. "Other companies are well established in South Africa, for example, EDF, with partnerships with South African companies like Eskom. We might get involved through subsidiaries in partnerships with other companies. For example, some of our engineering subsidiaries might be involved."
Nor is GDF Suez a State-owned company. Although the French State does have a shareholding in the group, it is a minority stake and the company is listed on the Paris Bourse.
Neither is the group committed to using only French technology. "We are an operator. We don't sell reactors. We buy reactors," he highlighted. "We operate Westinghouse reactors, Areva reactors and will operate [Canadian-designed] Candu reactors. We want to keep our independence from reactor suppliers. We plan to develop and operate 3 600 MW of nuclear in the UK but we have not yet made a decision on what reactor to use – Areva's EPR or Westinghouse's AP1000."
Also, GDF Suez is an energy group, not solely a nuclear group. It has 73 000 MW of installed generating capacity in several countries, of which almost 50% is produced from different varieties of gas. Hydroelectricity accounts for another 16% and the share provided by nuclear power is the same – 16%. The remainder comes from a variety of other sources.
GDF Suez' strategy is to have a balanced mix of energy sources. The group intends that nuclear will account for between 16% and 20% of its energy mix in the future.
On the other hand, it is no newcomer to nuclear. It has 45 years experience in the sector and was one of the shareholders in the first commercial PWR built in Europe, which was in Belgium.
Today, the group operates seven reactors in Belgium, at two sites, two reactors in France and one in Germany. The total nuclear generating capacity is 5 930 MW, of which 4 000 MW is in Belgium, 1 170 MW is in France and 700 MW is in Germany. It plans to own and operate third-generation PWRs by 2020.
GDF Suez has nearly 4 000 employees working in the nuclear sector, and the group has 11 nuclear subsidiaries, either working in different sectors of the nuclear industry or in different countries. It has shares in a Canadian uranium-miner, a 5% stake in Areva's Georges Besse II uranium-enrichment plant and so is active in the entire nuclear cycle.
