British Nuclear Fuels Limited

British Nuclear Fuels to Sell Westinghouse to Toshiba.

Publication: Nuclear Power Today
Date: Thursday, January 26 2006
Subject: Electric equipment industry

British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) recently announced it has selected Toshiba Corporation as the preferred bidder for the sale of Westinghouse Electric Company.

According to BNFL, the announcement follows multiple rounds of bidding that began last fall. The Toshiba bid is being recommended for approval by the BNFL Group board this week.

"We are pleased that by selecting Toshiba we have achieved our dual objectives of doing the best for our employees and the British taxpayers," said BNFL chief executive officer Mike Parker.

Contact: BNFL, website http://www.bnfl.com.

Source:  http://www.allbusiness.com/utilities/electric-power-generation/859344-1.html....

 

British Nuclear Fuels Limited was set up in February 1971 from the demerger of the production division of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). In 1984 BNFL became a public limited company as British Nuclear Fuels plc, wholly owned by the UK government.

Until 2003 its headquarters were based at Risley, near Warrington, England. BNFLs headquarters are now at Daresbury Park industrial estate, also near to Warrington.

BNFL Inc. was established in 1990 and specialised in decontamination and decommissioning of nuclear sites. On 19 April 2005 the company was renamed BNG America, a subsidiary of BNFL's British Nuclear Group. [1]

In 1996 the UK's eight most advanced nuclear plants, seven Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor (AGR) and one Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) were privatised as British Energy, raising £2.1 billion.[2] The oldest reactors, the Magnox sites, were not attractive for commercial operations and remained in public ownership as Magnox Electric. On 30 January 1998 Magnox Electric was merged into BNFL as British Nuclear Fuels plc Magnox Generation.

In 1999 BNFL acquired Westinghouse Electric Company, the commercial nuclear power businesses of CBS, (Westinghouse acquired CBS in 1995 and reoriented itself as a broadcaster). Westinghouse's businesses are fuel manufacture, decommissioning of nuclear sites and reactor design, construction and servicing.

In 2000 BNFL purchased the nuclear businesses of ABB for £300 million ($485 million). This company, which was merged into Westinghouse, had nuclear interests in the United States, Europe and Asia. [3]

Reorganisation

On 1 April 2005 the company was reorganised. British Nuclear Fuels plc was renamed British Nuclear Group Sellafield Ltd. A new holding company was established an adopted the British Nuclear Fuels plc name. [4] This new group operates largely through its major British Nuclear Group subsidiary.

In July 2005 BNFL confirmed it planned to sell Westinghouse, then estimated to be worth $1.8bn (£1bn). However the bid attracted interest from several companies, including Toshiba, General Electric and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and when the Financial Times reported on January 23, 2006 that Toshiba had won the bid, it valued the company's offer at $5bn (£2.8bn). On February 6 2006 Toshiba confirmed it was buying Westinghouse Electric Company for $5.4bn and announced it would sell a minority stake to investors. [5]

On 3 February 2006 BNFL announced it had agreed to sell its BNG America subsidiary to EnergySolutions. [6]

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) was established on 1 April 2005. The NDA has already taken control of BNFL's nuclear sites to allow BNFL the freedom to concentrate on minimising decommissioning costs. However, the intention is to open up the decommissioning to tender in order to drive down costs and so BNFL will likely be one of a number of decommissioning contractors through its British Nuclear Group subsidiary.

In January 2007 the NDA announced that the R&D arm of BNFL, Nexia Solutions would be complemented with a North West Skills Academy to help develop young scientists and engineers into the nuclear industry. This fraternal gesture from the NDA was believed to aid Nexia Solutions as it struggles to compete, both for staff and contracts, against other contracting companies in the UK and from abroad.

In March 2006 BNFL announced its intention to sell British Nuclear Group. With the sale of Westinghouse Electric Company, BNG America and BNG this will effectively bring BNFL to an end. Mike Parker, CEO of BNFL, said: "By the end of 2007... there will be little need for the BNFL corporate centre from this time." [7] On 22 August 2006 the BNFL announced that instead of selling BNG as a going concern it would instead sell it off piece by piece. The first businesses to be sold are Project Services, a specialist nuclear consulting business, and the one-third stake of AWE Management. [8] AWE is responsible for the support and manufacturing of the UK's nuclear deterrent.

In January 2007 BNFL announced that it would sell its Magnox reactor site management business, which works under contract to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.[9] All UK Magnox power stations are due cease operation by 2010.

The BNFL currently operates at 18 sites in the UK. They are:

See Also

References

  1. ^ "BNG America is launched", British Nuclear Group, 2005-04-19. Retrieved on 2006-08-25. 
  2. ^ Risk Management: The Nuclear Liabilities of British Energy plc (PDF). National Audit Office (2004-02-06). Retrieved on 2006-08-25.
  3. ^ BNFL (1999-12-29). BNFL to Acquire Nuclear Business of ABB. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-08-25.
  4. ^ BNFL Annual Report and Accounts 2005 (PDF) 3. British Nuclear Fuels plc (2005). Retrieved on 2006-08-26.
  5. ^ "Toshiba buys BNFL firm for $5.4bn", BBC News, 2006-02-06. Retrieved on 2006-08-25. 
  6. ^ "BNG America to Join EnergySolutions", BNG America, 2006-02-03. Retrieved on 2006-08-25. ; see also Jameson, Angela. "BNFL sells American nuclear business for $90m", The Times, 2006-02-03. 
  7. ^ Jameson, Angela. "BNFL to be wound up by end of 2007", The Times, 2006-07-04. Retrieved on 2006-08-25. 
  8. ^ Griffiths, Katherine. "Anger as nuclear sell-off is shelved", Daily Telegraph, 2006-08-23. Retrieved on 2006-08-25. 
  9. ^ "BNFL sale of reactor sites business", Nuclear Engineering International, 12 January 2007. Retrieved on 2007-01-31. 

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BNFL

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BNFL - British Nuclear Fuels plc. (Großbritannien)

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Risley
Warrington
Cheshire WA3 6AS
Tel.: 01925 832000
Fax: 01925 822711

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Source:  http://www.anti-atom.de/bnfl.htm

US returns to nuclear energy

String of power stations could enrich British Nuclear Fuels

Special report: George Bush's America

Martin Kettle in Washington, Paul Brown and Mark Milner
Wednesday May 2, 2001
The Guardian

Vice-President Dick Cheney threw away 20 years of environmental caution yesterday when he announced that the US would build a new generation of nuclear power plants in the government's effort to overcome a national energy shortage.

The US rejected nuclear power after the major accident at Three Mile Island in 1979. It has not built a single new nuclear plant since then, although the industry still produces a fifth of its electricity.

Apart from the fear of an accident, reinforced by Chernobyl in 1986, the industry has been dogged by the problem of dealing with spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste.

Attempts to create a long-term depository for thousands of spent fuel rods and the accumulated waste of 50 years have failed, in both the US and Britain.

In Russian and Ukraine, which have toyed with the idea of taking the west's nuclear rubbish, the problem is even more acute, and there are doubts about the safety of their reactors and storage sites.

Mr Cheney has shrugged aside these difficulties, and given the government-owned British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), which two years ago bought the biggest US nuclear reactor designer, Westinghouse Electric, a huge boost.

Westinghouse has designed half the world's nuclear stations and 60% of those in the US. Eighteen months ago, after 14 years of work, its newest design, the AP600, was licensed by the US department of energy, but none has been built.

At 600MW, it is much smaller than previous Westinghouse station: half the size of Britain's newest nuclear station, Sizewell B in Suffolk, also a Westinghouse design.

The idea would be to build a series of them across the US. Mr Cheney said between 1,300 and 1,900 new generating plants would be needed. If Westinghouse built only a few of them it would make BNFL a very rich company.

The US has not revealed the scale of its proposed reinvestment in nuclear power, but Mr Cheney has not concealed in recent weeks that he is determined to give it a prominent role in the report of his energy policy taskforce, which he is due to hand to George Bush later this month.

"If we are serious about environmental protection, then we must seriously question the wisdom of backing away from what is, as a matter of record, a safe, clean and very plentiful energy source," he said in a speech in Toronto.

His report is expected to call on the US to build at least 5 new power plants a year for the foreseeable future to create enough energy to avert the power cuts which have plagued California this year and are expected in parts of north-eastern US, including New York City, this summer.

Neither Mr Bush nor Mr Cheney made any prominent mention of their readiness to embrace nuclear power in last year's election campaign. The Republican party policy platform for the elections did not mention the nuclear option in its nine-point energy plan.

But the nuclear industry has an open line to Mr Cheney through his long-standing friend Tom Loeffler, a former Republican congressman and Washington lobbyist whose clients include the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry pressure group. Mr Loeffler's former aide Nancy Dorn is now in charge of congressional liaison for Mr Cheney.

Power generators have begun talking to the energy department and the nuclear regulatory commission about speeding up the licensing process adopted after Three Mile Island.

The nuclear industry has no shortage of supporters in Congress. Ten senators, led by the Republican Pete Domenici of New Mexico, are sponsoring a bill to require the US to build new nuclear plants. The senior Republican in the lower house, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, said this week that he "absolutely and firmly" supported new nuclear plants.

The US has 103 nuclear power plants, which produce 571.2bn kilowatt-hours a year, about 20% of the total.

The incident at Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in which a reactor overheated and its core partially melted, was the worst nuclear accident in US history. No one was killed and the radiation was contained, but it dealt a devastating blow to the industry's credibility.

Recent opinion polls suggest that about two-thirds of Americans favour new nuclear plants, compared with under half two years ago.

In recent months there have been leaks that BNFL wants to build new nuclear stations to replace its ageing Magnox reactors, which are due to close over the next seven years. It is expected to propose in its five-year corporate plan, due soon, that they are replaced with AP 600s.

It is being encouraged by Department of the Trade and Industry officials, who have long been known to favour the expansion of nuclear power, despite the current government policy of letting the industry fade away as the plants reach the end of their design life.

British Energy, the privatised company which operates Sizewell B and the seven British-designed advanced gas-cooled reactors built in the 70s and 80s, is also engaged in the US through a joint venture, but is not thought to be considering new stations.

France relies heavily on nuclear power but the government has decided to diversify. Germany is committed to a phasing out its plants, and no new stations are planned in western Europe. There are about 70 reactors in Russia and eastern Europe, only a handful built to western standards.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001

Source:  http://www.nci.org/0new/npower-guardian5301.htm