However the two sides prepare the future

They expect in a hangar for months. Manufactured in the factory Areva de Saint-Marcel, in Saône-et-Loire, four 500-ton steam generators each must still wait before be installed in the Olkiluoto reactor, in Finland.

See of large components such as these temporarily unused, there is nothing to get angry over Jean-Pierre Mouroux, Director of project of Olkiluoto in Areva. "Everything will depend on the polar bridge," rage veteran of the atom, which built factories for the reprocessing of the Hague, France, and Rokasho-mura, to the Japan. The polar bridge, it is this giant handling tool, which rotates on its axis in a diameter of 40 metres and will get heavy equipment in the reactor.

According to Jean-Pierre Mouroux, TVO customer refuses that can be used until it is tested in the final testing in service ("commissioning"). "What I want to do, is start testing of components already installed, and my client would like everything to be installed before you begin," eager to.

The issue is far from trivial. Once he may use this famous polar bridge, he believes that he can finish the site in twenty-four months. Today, TVO and Areva expect to a commissioning in 2012, with three years of delay. "If the client wants to delay the system, it's his choice," warns the framework of Areva. His goal: not receive 1,000,0000 responsibility.

Fruitful exchanges in the field

"Coordination is very important for these trials, believes his side Jouni Silvennoinen, responsible of the project at TVO.". There are still some uncertainties to lift before freeze the calendar. "For the electrician Finnish, pressure that publicly Areva does not trade on the ground, who are rather successful. In Finland, it is said even that testing on the polar bridge began...

This gap between the two speeches is common since the beginning of the work, in 2005. The provider regularly accuses his client to be fussy and TVO accuses French of poorly prepared the construction site of the first EPR. With Areva, "it is very special." "The ability to listen to Anne Lauvergeon is not as good as its ability to speak", had declared to the "echoes" in September Timo Rajala, Chair of BDV, paper group which holds about 60 of the electrician.

The patron saint of Areva replied in a style to it early March. Noting that the former boss was retired, it said in a press conference: "There will be perhaps in a sauna in Finland."

In reality, the relationship between TVO and Areva is more complex than it seems. "There is one between the teams on the ground, between the leaders on arbitration and on the future", said a Finnish. AREVA, which has already lost EUR 2.3 billion at this site, asked his client to take 1 billion to its load. For its part, TVO seeks its supplier 1.4 billion to the title of the shortfall of production related to the delay. "All the statements of each and the other come fuel the record of the Court of arbitration," a French analysis.

However, the two sides prepare the future. Online focus, the possible command of a second EPR, despite all the apparent tensions. The Finnish Parliament must decide the month next to or against the decision in principle"to build a fourth nuclear reactor at Olkiluoto. TVO has already taken the lead and screened in five models, including the ABWR from Toshiba, the APR-1400 of Korean Kepco and the EPR of Areva. Officially, the game is open, but French and Finnish have a mutual interest in reworking together.

By choosing another provider, even cheaper, TVO would run the risk of new delays in its security requirements. For its part, Areva can hope to cover a portion of the losses of the first EPR with a second. "We will not build on the same contractual conditions," says Philippe Knoche, the pattern of the reactors in Areva branch. But if we can make a copy, there is an economy for all.

For its part, as it did for its first two reactors, TVO is ready to keep the same provider and renounce a turnkey contract, according to a close source from the folder. In this case, the two companies would suspend their claim in arbitration. Same Jean-Pierre Mouroux is not against a new site. "Personally, I am ready to start over." I have only fifty-eight years old.