Global nuclear firms eye province; French giant Areva in talks with local companies

Geoffrey Scotton, March 29, 2008, Calgary Herald -- French nuclear fabrication giant Areva is in serious talks with multiple players in Alberta -- suggesting a recent $10-billion-plus proposal may be just the first of several plans to emerge to build nuclear generation in Alberta.

Armand Laferrere, president of Areva Canada Inc., said Friday his visit to Calgary included discussions with several firms pondering building a nuclear generating facility in Alberta.

He said those investors go beyond Bruce Power LP, an Ontario firm that on March 13 announced plans for a 4,000-MW facility near Peace River that could cost $10 billion -- or easily more.

"We're talking with potential investors about nuclear power plants...I cannot say much more than that," Armand said following a presentation Friday in Calgary.

Laferrere declined to comment on whether oilsand players are among those talking to Areva. It is the largest nuclear firm in the world and hopes to sell four of its reactors to Bruce Power. He also declined to provide any details on what firms other than Bruce Power his company may be courting.

Laferrere maintained that nuclear power generation is a natural fit for Alberta, which has the fastest growing power demand in North America. In part that is because nuclear power is emission free and also because it could be substituted for natural gas-fired generation and natural gas-fired oilsands production.

"As I understand, there has been a little bit of pressure on this province lately about greenhouse gases," said Laferrere. "Diversifying the (generating) mix would allow Alberta to keep more natural gas to sell in the U.S."

The possibility of a second nuclear generating facility in Alberta comes amid a flurry of proposed generating projects that totals well over 20,000 MW of generation in a marketplace where the Alberta Electric System Operator forecasts demand of just 5,000 MW by 2017 and 11,500 MW by 2027. It suggests a lot of projects just are not going to get built.

"That number differential will sort itself out," Alberta Energy Minister Mel Knight told the Herald.

"At the end of the day, it's investors that are going to come and put their money on the table that are the ones that are going to make those decisions."

Areva is among four potential suppliers to the proposed Bruce Power plant in Peace River and similarly is pursuing opportunities in Ontario, where the provincial government has asked for proposals for new nuclear construction. Bruce Power is the largest private operator of nuclear facilities in Canada.

"We are one of the designs that Bruce Power is looking at, " said Laferrere. "We're competing for their attention."

Also in the bidding for the Peace River project is Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., which sells and build the CANDU design that dominates Canadian nuclear generation, but has been subject to chronic cost overruns.

No nuclear facility in Canada has been built on time or on budget and most have outsized time and financial budgets by orders of magnitude.

Areva is in the midst of building two new so-called generation three nuclear generating stations, the first of its kind in Finland and a second in France, where it ranks as the first nuclear construction in the world's most nuclear-reliant jurisdiction since 1991.

The Finland project is both behind schedule by about two years and considerably over budget, despite being designed, Laferrere said, to be both safer and more economic that the earlier generation two models.