Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
8/7/2015
Renewal of the 30-year-old U.S.-China civil nuclear cooperation agreement moved past the 90-day congressional review period on July 31, keeping the door open for U.S. private investment in the world’s fastest-growing nuclear market. However, U.S. companies will face competition from foreign companies, such as France’s AREVA, which has announced plans to attract Chinese investors as part of its “Strategic Roadmap.” The drive to attract Chinese investment was reported by French publication Journal du Dimanche last weekend. AREVA spokeswoman Katherine Berezowskyj confirmed the plans in an email to NS&D Monitor this week.
The U.S.-China agreement expires at the end of the year, and the State Department confirmed this week that it is looking to formally renew the deal sometime in the near future. “The U.S.-China civil nuclear agreement provides a comprehensive framework for peaceful nuclear cooperation with China based on the highest standards of nonproliferation and nuclear safety,” a State Department official said in an email to NS&D Monitor. Lawmakers did not challenge the agreement during the waiting period, despite recently expressing concerns about China diverting U.S.-origin nuclear technology for military uses.
France, Russia, Japan, and South Korea could capitalize on any future American absence from the booming Chinese civil nuclear industry, Thomas Countryman, State Department assistant secretary of international security and nonproliferation, said during a July 16 joint hearing of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittees on Asia and the Pacific, and Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade. “There are other countries that are eager to sell nuclear power plants to China,” he said.
AREVA Chairman Philippe Varin told Journal du Dimanche that China is “central” to AREVA’s future. “Now is the time to make alliances because the country’s nuclear sector is growing and is in need of technology," he said. AREVA, which is 85 percent owned by the French government, on June 30 signed a memorandum of understanding with the China National Nuclear Corp. to work on a used fuel treatment and recycling plant in China. The agreement recognizes the commitment of both sides to finalize the negotiations at the “soonest possible date,” according to an AREVA press release.
U.S. industry has earned about $8 billion in sales under the current agreement. As China plans to grow its reactor base from 27 to 51 plants, U.S. companies have another $30 billion to $60 billion “under current negotiation,” and could earn several billion dollars during each year of the renewed three-decade agreement, Daniel Lipman, vice president of supplier and international programs for the Nuclear Energy Institute, said in testimony during the joint House subcommittee hearing.
