France's Edf Buys British Energy, Taking The First Concrete Step Toward New Nuclear Build In Britain

[FBaggins]

Why Purchase British Energy? ----------------------------

2.(U) The primary value of BE is that it owns the best sites for new nuclear reactors, and has a nuclear-skilled workforce. Existing sites already have grid connections, a major hurdle for any new site to overcome. Also, communities around existing nuclear plants tend to be supportive of nuclear plants, reducing the uncertainty of obtaining planning permits

...snip...

6.(SBU) Comment: The purchase of BE will help to speed up the development of new reactors in the UK. It is expected that EDF will finance mostly from its balance sheet, and is relatively unaffected by the current credit situation. With an investment of 23 billion dollars in the UK market, EDF has made the firm financial commitment that will allow vendors and other pieces of the supply chain to begin making preparations.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wikileaks-files/london-wikileaks/8304748/FRANCES-EDF-BUYS-BRITISH-ENERGY-TAKING-THE-FIRST-CONCRETE-STEP-TOWARD-NEW-NUCLEAR-BUILD-IN-BRITAIN-1.U.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. I'm really struggling to see why the Telegraph thought this was worth posting

Is there anything significant here that wasn't in the previous day's news reports, such as this? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7632853.stm

Mind you, it just seems they've done a large dump of 30 or so nuclear-related telegrams like this, without any apparent comment on them.

[FBaggins]

2. Did the telegraph report on it the day before?

I can't think of a paper that says "well... the Times already covered this so there's no point in running the story".

More relevant to the post above... I haven't seen the story posted here on DU.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Yes, here's the Telegraph report:

EdF buys British Energy for £12.5bn

France’s EdF agreed to buy nuclear power company British Energy for £12.5bn, and aims to sell a stake to Centrica, paving the way for a new generation of nuclear reactors

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/3071723/EdF-buys-British-Energy-for-12.5bn.html

The first attempt (before the price was raised) was noted in E/E:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x165536

One small reference to the successful one on DU in the E/E forum here:

I know I should be furious. The EDF takeover of British Energy means that four nuclear power stations could now be built around the UK, the first nuclear new build in a generation. As a long-standing Green party member, one who chops his own wood, grows his own leeks, keeps chickens and puts the kids in washable nappies, antinuclear indignation should spring easily to my lips.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=172844

And it was noted in the daily stock market thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3507760&mesg_id=3508179

[FBaggins]

4. This goes into quite a bit more detail and from a different perspective.

It purports to be a wikileaks release.

And those DU references are over two years old and were obviously not the same story (failed purchase vs. success). Surely you're not suggesting that they make it "old news"?

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. The wikileaks telegram is dated 2 years ago - it's the same story

Wikileaks: "Date: 9/25/2008 9:43"

Telegraph article: "8:28AM BST 24 Sep 2008"

Obviously, it's the same story - the US embassy telegram is the summary of what the previous day's news reports said.

I can't see what the different perspective is. There is the mention that Westinghouse told the embassy they might be able to sell some of their reactors if some sites were sold off, I suppose. Which might have been interesting to some investors at the time; but it's certainly been public for over a year:

Japanese firm Toshiba owns 77% of Westinghouse, with 20% owned by Shaw Group. Westinghouse is hoping to secure contracts to build at least four of its AP1000 reactors with E.ON and RWE npower, who have formed a nuclear joint venture in the UK, soon after Christmas.
...
Rival French reactor firm Areva is building the rest of the UK's reactors, on behalf of EDF Energy, and has only promised to allow British firms to bid for up to 70% of the supply contracts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/22/britain-loses-jobs-as-nuclear-building-programme-contract-goes-to-america