The French electricity company EDF has signed an exclusive agreement for the purchase of part of the nuclear activity of GE Steam Power, including the Arabelle steam turbines.
Expected for several days, the announcement was made by EDF and GE in a joint press release published Thursday.
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It appears on the day of President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Belfort, on the very site of manufacture of the Arabelle turbines equipping French nuclear power plants, sold in 2015 to the American General Electric when he was Minister of the Economy.
This choice to sell Alstom's energy branch to GE has been regularly criticized.
According to a source familiar with the matter, EDF will pay around 200 million dollars for this transaction, once the cash and debts of the acquired activity have been taken into account.
The activity that will be acquired by EDF is valued at a total of 1.2 billion dollars, due to significant cash.
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The proposed transaction covers "
GE Steam Power's conventional island equipment for new nuclear power plants, including the Arabelle turbines - the most powerful in the world - as well as maintenance and upgrades of existing nuclear power plants
", detail the two groups.
A strategic asset for the nuclear industry
These steam turbines are a strategic asset for the nuclear industry.
GE claims half of the world market against competitors such as Mitsubishi or Siemens.
In particular, they will be able to equip reactors with EPR and EPR2 technology as well as SMRs (Small Modular Reactors), it is specified.
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The nuclear activities and the teams concerned by the planned operation are located “
nearly 70% in France, in particular on industrial sites such as Belfort and La Courneuve
”, and concern around fifteen countries in total.
This acquisition project "
will enable EDF to further strengthen its mastery of key technologies and skills for the fleet in operation and for new nuclear reactor projects in France and beyond
", commented the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EDF Jean-Bernard Lévy, quoted in the press release.
On the GE side, the group would continue to provide its services "
for more than 100 GW of nuclear turbine islands in its American market
" and would retain GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy, "
a leading supplier in the field of reactor life cycle , which will deploy the first commercial, grid-connected SMR in Canada
.”
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“
Nuclear energy also has an important role to play in the energy transition and GE will continue to support this industry
”, underlined for its part its president and general manager, Larry Culp, also quoted.