Major French-US nuclear power link
Electricite de France (EdF) and Exelon have signed a 5-year agreement to cooperate on managerial and technical matters, such as outage management, fuel operations and equipment reliability. It specifically excludes "any joint venture or new build effort."
Electricite de France (EdF) and Exelon have signed a 5-year agreement to cooperate on nuclear power matters.
The memorandum of understanding covers managerial and technical matters such as outage management, fuel operations and equipment reliability. It specifically excludes "any joint venture or new build effort."
EdF is the main electrical utility in France and operates 58 nuclear reactors, while Exelon is the largest nuclear power operator in the USA.
EdF has been making major efforts to be involved in the USA. With Exelon, it is a party in NuStart Energy, the first of the consortia formed in 2004 to tap Department of Energy (DoE) funding in preparing applications for combined construction and operating licences (COL) for new nuclear power plants in the USA. NuStart has lodged two COL applications, and Exelon plans to lodge one in its own name.
EdF is also closely involved with Constellation Energy as a 3% shareholder (set to increase to 9.9%), and as 50-50 partner with Constellation in Unistar Nuclear Energy, another consortium formed to pursue COL plans. Unistar is focused specifically on Areva's US-EPR technology, and plans four COL applications.
Exelon spokesman Krista Lopykinski said that the new agreement was similar to those it has with major South Korean and Japanese utilities, KHNP and Tepco, rather than new build where EdF is committed in other directions.
