{"id":21533,"date":"2026-05-23T10:29:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T10:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/21533\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T10:29:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T10:29:01","slug":"atkinsrealis-edf-pursue-tighter-partnership-as-they-seek-to-build-new-nuclear-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/21533\/","title":{"rendered":"AtkinsR\u00e9alis, EDF pursue tighter partnership as they seek to build new nuclear plants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bugey Nuclear Power Plant in the Saint-Vulbas commune, eastern France, in July, 2023. Nuclear-power generation is tightly concentrated in a handful of countries, with France among them.EMMANUEL DUNAND\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Montreal-based engineering company AtkinsR\u00e9alis Group Inc. ATRL-T<\/a> and \u00c9lectricit\u00e9 de France, the French nuclear<\/a> giant, have agreed to pursue a deeper partnership, the companies declared Monday.<\/p>\n

The two nuclear companies are preparing for what they hope will be a global surge in reactor construction. Their new collaboration agreement could lead to supplying power-plant equipment, such as turbines, and providing engineering support.<\/p>\n

Joe St. Julian, president of AtkinsR\u00e9alis\u2019s nuclear operations, has predicted that as many as 1,000 new reactors will be built by mid-century; he said his company is responding to concerns from customers and government about whether it has sufficient capacity to capture a sizable chunk of that demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know if we\u2019re going to need them or their capacity in engineering,\u201d he said of EDF. \u201cBut if we do, we want to have them as a readily available partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The two companies have worked together before; EDF is AtkinsR\u00e9alis\u2019s second-largest customer, behind Ontario Power Generation.<\/p>\n

Owned entirely by the French government, EDF operates the largest reactor fleet of any single company worldwide: 57 in France, and nine in Britain. It\u2019s also lead contractor on two large plants under construction in Britain: Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C.<\/p>\n

AtkinsR\u00e9alis is the architect and engineer on both projects. Mr. St. Julian said negotiations began six months ago on the collaboration agreement, which is non-binding and can be terminated by either party at will. Both companies agree they\u2019ll continue competing with each other to sell their own respective reactor models.<\/p>\n

AtkinsR\u00e9alis holds an exclusive licence for Canada\u2019s Candu reactor; it\u2019s marketing the 740-megawatt Enhanced Candu 6 along with a proposed 1,000-megawatt model called the Monark. <\/p>\n

The company has been searching for a turbine generator set to pair with the Monark. (Candus have traditionally been paired with American-built turbines from General Electric.) The company has shortlisted turbines from Arabelle Solutions, which became an EDF subsidiary a year ago and has roots in France dating from the 1950s. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe really like the EDF turbine generator,\u201d Mr. St. Julian said. \u201cAnd as we started that discussion, we recognized there\u2019s opportunities for us to take this already robust industrial partnership and expand it, where we help you guys in Europe, maybe, and you guys can help us in Canada, maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) \u2013 which EDF is building at Hinkley Point and Sizewell \u2013 is much larger than the Monark, at 1,600 megawatts. In 2023, Ontario Power Generation and EDF said they were jointly exploring the feasibility of building EPRs in Canada. <\/p>\n

Nuclear-power generation is tightly concentrated in a handful of countries, and France is among them. It once boasted the world\u2019s second-largest operating fleet but has been eclipsed by China, which stands nearly alone in aggressively adding new nuclear capacity.<\/p>\n

Despite recent optimism about a nuclear \u201crenaissance,\u201d other technologies (including renewables and fossil fuels) continue to attract far more investment, the International Energy Agency said in a report<\/a> published last week.<\/p>\n

Capital flows directed to nuclear power have grown by half over the past five years, the IEA noted, but Chinese investment accounted for most of that increase.<\/p>\n

Although the French government continues to express enthusiasm for building new nuclear plants, EDF\u2019s reactor fleet is aging. France\u2019s only new plant so far this century, the 1.65-gigawatt Flamanville Unit 3, was connected to the grid in December. Its construction began as long ago as 2007 but was plagued by immense cost and schedule overruns. EDF carries a heavy debt load, which is widely expected to present a major obstacle for future projects.<\/p>\n

According to Paris-based Mycle Schneider Consulting\u2019s latest report on the nuclear industry, EDF also faces \u201ctechnical and manpower challenges with their existing ageing nuclear fleets and ongoing construction projects.\u201d The Korea Electric Power Corp. is also highly indebted, while major Chinese and Russian builders have been subject to international sanctions and blacklists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is supposed to build hundreds of nuclear power reactors around the world over the coming two and a half decades?\u201d the consultancy asked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The Bugey Nuclear Power Plant in the Saint-Vulbas commune, eastern France, in July,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12859],"tags":[1078,1067,1079,949,1058,1080,514,1057,1073,1074,1069,1059,1056,539,8739,1034,4250,825,1072,1065,1091,1060,1061,1071,1068,315,1063,1081,1064,1086,1087,1089,1084,1088,1082,1085,1062,1076,1077,346,1075,1083,1066,244,158,1070,946,90,1090],"class_list":["post-21533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-electricite-de-france","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-edf","tag-education","tag-electricite-de-france","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}