Brussels, 30/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 30 October 2007, the European Commission cleared the creation of a joint venture between the French company AREVA NP and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) of Japan, both active in the nuclear industry. The joint venture will be active in the design and manufacture of 'nuclear islands', the steam generation units of nuclear power plants.
AREVA NP is itself a joint venture co-owned and co-controlled by AREVA (66%) and Siemens (34%). MHI is active in power structures - including nuclear power equipment and assorted types of industrial and other machinery.
The new joint venture would be responsible for the design, licensing, certification, marketing, sale, construction and commissioning of a single type of nuclear island to be installed in nuclear power plants. The 'nuclear island' to be produced by the joint venture would be a mid-range pressurised water reactor with a power output of 900-1200 Megawatts electrical (MWe). Both parent companies would continue to offer nuclear islands with higher capacity independently of each other. The co-operation within the joint venture would not include ancillary products (such as maintenance and repair services, fuel assemblies and conventional islands). These products would also be supplied independently by AREVA NP and MHI.
The Commission found that the activities of AREVA NP and MHI are geographically complementary, since AREVA NP is mainly active in the EEA, and MHI in Japan. The joint venture and its parent companies would continue to face competition from several competitors with worldwide activities - GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Toshiba/Westinghouse - and a number of producers of 'nuclear islands' with regional footprints such as Atomstroyexport (Russia), Doosan/KOPEC (South Korea) and AECL (Canada). The Commission therefore concluded that the proposed operation is unlikely to harm competition in the European Economic Area. (C.D.)