POWER November 2011 - 15

to AREVA, citing a " lack of exercising entrepreneurial influence
within the joint venture " as the reason behind the move.
Later in 2009, Siemens signed a memorandum of understanding
with Russian state atomic energy utility Rosatom for the creation
of a new nuclear joint venture that planned to push forward with
development, marketing, and construction of Russia's pressurized
water reactor (VVER) technology-an agreement that was all but
fruitless. This September, Rosatom inked an agreement with the
UK's Rolls-Royce (as part of a UK-Russia civil nuclear cooperation
pact) to make use of that company's large nuclear supply chain,
including consultant activities, and manufacturing and technical
engineering support. Rolls-Royce will also likely provide safetycritical
instrumentation and control systems-as it has to all 58
operating nuclear facilities in France.
Providing safety-critical instrumentation and control systems
for new reactors was part of Siemens' specialist business unit,
and the firm was also a specialist provider of the " conventional
island " of new nuclear power plants. But, as World Nuclear News
noted, most reactor vendors typically work with a regular partner
or supply themselves for conventional island work: AREVA
pairs with Alstom, for example; GE-Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries supply themselves; Westinghouse works with several
suppliers, including its owner Toshiba; and state-owned companies
like Rosatom and South Korea's KEPCO offer contracts to
domestic firms. This has left the conglomerate with no defined
partner for new nuclear builds-another factor that may have
played into the firm's decision to withdraw from nuclear activities
altogether.
SSE-which has over 11 GW of coal, gas, and hydropower
plants, as well as wind farms, across the UK and Ireland-had in
October 2009 announced plans with GDF and Iberdrola to build
a 3.6-GW nuclear plant near Sellafield, West Cumbria via a 25%
stake in the NuGeneration joint venture. Those plans were buoyed
by the UK government's pending approval of eight sites for new
nuclear builds-a strategy to ensure reliability because about a
quarter of the country's generation capacity is set to expire in the
next decade as older reactors reach the end of their lives and coal
plants are closed to meet European Union pollution standards.
The company spent £19.5 million ($30.5 million) to secure the
option to buy land for the development.
But SSE has since invested billions of pounds over the past
two years in renewable projects, including the massive 350-MW
land-based Clyde wind farm and the 500-MW Greater Gabbard
offshore wind farm. SSE said in a statement in September that
its decision to pull out of the nuclear joint venture was based
on concerns relating to the " the cost, development issues, timetable
and operational efficacy of nuclear power stations [that]
all require the greatest possible scrutiny before a commitment to
invest in new nuclear power stations can be made. " For the time
being, the utility's resources " are better deployed on business
activities and technologies where it has the greatest knowledge
and experience, " it said.
The Shaw Group's decision to sell its stake in Westinghouse
to Toshiba was prompted by a surge in its yen-dominated debt
by almost $600 million to a total of $1.7 billion since its acquisition
of Westinghouse in 2006. Paying off that debt increase
would wipe out the expected gain from the stake sale-estimated
at $545 million at the end of August-but it would
leave the company with virtually no debt, the company said.
The firm is expected to continue working with Westinghouse in
the deployment and commercialization of the third-generation
AP1000 reactors currently under construction in China and the
state of Georgia, however.
November 2011 | POWER
German Court Questions Legality of
Nuclear Tax
A German finance court in September questioned the constitutionality
of a controversial tax on fuel used in nuclear power
plants, a decision that could influence rulings in various finance
courts around the country that are reviewing complaints by nuclear
operators regarding the levy.
Germany established the tax last year as part of the government's
landmark deal with four utilities to extend the lives of the
country's 17 operational reactors, seeking to raise €2.3 billion
($3.1 billion) per year for the German treasury. Following the
Fukushima crisis in March of this year, however, the government
announced an abrupt U-turn in policy, saying it would scrap the
extensions, immediately shutter eight older reactors, and phase
out nuclear power in the country by 2022. But it retained the
tax, which requires E.ON, EnBW, RWE, and Vattenfall to continue
paying €145 ($198) per gram of nuclear fuel loaded into a reactor
after Jan. 1, 2011.
The utilities have decried the tax and have launched legal action.
The generators are also separately suing for compensation
for revenues lost from the eight closed nuclear reactors. E.ON,
which has paid some €470 million ($637 million) and expects
additional costs of up to €600 million ($813 million) in nuclear
tax this year, warned that the tax could force it to shed 11,000
jobs. EnBW has said the tax would cost the company more than
€100 million ($136 million) a year. Swedish state-owned utility
Vattenfall said it expects to be reimbursed for costs of up to
SEK 10 billion ($1.5 billion) relating to the tax over the first six
months of the year.
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