The European Commission (EC) is to investigate a proposed venture between French companies Framatome SA and Cogema SA and Germany’s Siemens AG. The venture will combine nuclear activities.
Framatome is a designer and manufacturer of nuclear power plants and makes the main equipment for nuclear steam supply systems. Framatome, through cross-shareholding with Cogema, produces and markets fuel assemblies (FAs) for nuclear power plants.
In the nuclear sector, Siemens designs and supplies different types of power plants, including related nuclear fuel operations. Siemens, furthermore, manufactures equipment, for example instrumentation and control systems, for nuclear power plants.
The activities of state-owned Cogema cover the whole nuclear fuel cycle. The EC is concerned that the creation of the venture could affect in particular competition in fields such as the design and manufacture of fuel assemblies, instrumentation and control systems and in the replacement and installation of nuclear plant components. The concern is that the new entity would have a too substantial market share. The Commission has a further four months in which to make a final decision.
