In a sign that the planned construction of new nuclear reactors in the U.S.
market could jump-start the nation’s moribund manufacturing sector, France’s Areva SA and defense-industry giant Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) have formed a joint venture to make nuclear reactor
vessels, steam generators and other related components at Northrop’s Newport
News shipyard in Virginia.
The venture – Areva Newport News LLC – will emanate from a $360 million investment, and
will lead to the construction of a 300,000-square-foot
production-and-engineering facility, the two companies said yesterday
(Thursday). It will employ 500 workers when completed in 2011, according to an
MSNMoneycentral report.
Mike Petters, president of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, the unit that has
signed on to work with Areva, told The Wall Street
Journal that “we’ve watched manufacturing wane in shipbuilding and
we’ve watched for other opportunities to go into adjacent areas…We think a
nuclear renaissance is coming and we have the work force.”
The facility will promote U.S. market sales of Areva’s “evolutionary power reactor,” or EPR. Areva is seeking to get the
reactor design certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for use in
the U.S. market, The Journal reported.
The deal is also the latest illustration that commercial nuclear power –
which has been on a more or less permanent hiatus in the U.S. market since the
1979 near-meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear powerlant near Harrisburg,
Pa.— may finally be making a comeback in the energy-starved U.S. market.
There hasn’t been a single new nuclear plant built since the Three Mile
Island accident; this new manufacturing facility will be the first of its kind built in this country in
35 years, the Newport News Daily Press
reported.
The state-run Areva is trying to compete in an industry in which Japanese
firms – such as Hitachi Ltd. (ADR: HIT) and Toshiba Corp. (OTC: TOSBF), have come to play a large role. No surprise, too, that
China is building up its nuclear capabilities, and has global objectives for
that business.
“Our target is 80% U.S. content” for U.S. nuclear power plants, Anne
Lauvergeon, chief executive of Areva, told The
Journal. Lauvergeon believes Areva’s linkup with Northrop will
give the French company a competitive advantage over rivals that are more
reliant on imported goods. That’s why she said that she’s emphasizing the need
to have 80% of the content for U.S. reactors to be built domestically.
Orders from U.S. nuclear operators could top $100 billion in coming years,
and some are hoping that a wave of nuclear construction could also bolster the
U.S.’s ailing manufacturing sector.
Areva’s Lauvergeon said her company’s existing heavy manufacturing facility
at Chalon/Saint Marcel, France, is operating at capacity with a five-year
backlog of orders. Nucelar plants built with Areva’s design are under
construction in France, Finland and China. Three U.S. utilities have selected
Areva’s design including Constellation Energy Group Inc. (CEG), PPL Corp. (PPL) and Ameren Corp. (AEE).
With its decision to invest so heavily in the U.S.
market – and to involve a partner – it’s clear Areva is highly confident that
plans to build new nuclear plants in North America will move forward,
The Journal reported
