The fallout (if you’ll pardon the expression) from French nuclear giant AREVA’s parlous financial state continues. Following fast after AREVA’s announcement that its disastrous construction of the state of the art OL3 reactor at Olkiluoto in Finland has pushed the company into the red, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s have downgraded the company’s credit rating.
S&P blamed AREVA’s ‘weakened profitability’ which ‘will continue to be depressed over the next couple of years’. Basically, OL3 ate all of AREVA’s money. But never fear, S&P do see a way out for AREVA from its financial black hole. How?
S&P also suggested the French government "would provide timely and sufficient extraordinary support to AREVA in the event of financial distress."
Yep, you guessed it, the dear old taxpayer should be asked, once again, to reward the company for its staggering incompetence and profligacy by pulling AREVA out of the hole and then filling it in.
However, you would be a fool and a hippie who wants us all to go back to living in caves if you think AREVA is down and out. Their finest minds are, even as you read this, drawing up bold and innovative plans to secure to the company’s future [http://blogs.forbes.com/energysource/2010/06/28/areva-chief-talks-power/].
This ought to give you a sense of the kind of confidence Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive of the French nuclear giant Areva, has: Her company signed an agreement to develop a new nuclear reactor in Fremont, California in April.
The punchline?
It's illegal to build a new nuclear reactor in California.
How about that? Illegal nuclear reactors. Amazing. Not even the law is a barrier to AREVA’s ambitions, apparently. The law? AREVA laughs in the face of the law. ‘One way or another, it will change,’ says Anne Lauvergeon. Does that sound like a threat or desperation?