News from nuclear industry

A cooperation agreement has been signed between Indian and French governments concerning energy and research. This agreement opens the Indian market to Areva for the supply of power reactors. Areva will face Russian and American competitors. Areva is already present in India in the sectors of power transmission and distribution, it employs 3500 people and operates 8 industrial plants. Areva and Northrop Grumman have signed an agreement to build the biggest site on American soil dedicated to the manufacturing of big nuclear components like reactor vessels, steam generators and pressurizers. An opinion poll shows that 78% Americans favor the use of nuclear energy for producing electricity, while 24% are opposed to it and that nuclear power plants are considered safe by 78% of the population. The Areva-Bechtel corporation has signed an agreement with Unistar Nuclear Energy for doing the preliminary studies for the construction of an EPR near the Calvert Cliffs site. More than 500 engineers are working on the project that benefit from the feedback experience of 4 EPR that are presently being built in Finland, France and China. The European Commission wants the European Union to play a major role in nuclear safety, a task group has been created whose purpose is to define new regulations illustrating common priorities and approaches for unifying national nuclear safety standards among the member states. (A.C.)