The European Commission has recently cleared the acquisition by Electricité de France (EdF) of a stake in Energie Baden-Württemberg (EnBW).
Among the conditions that have been imposed by the Commission, EdF has agreed to make 6000MWe of power available to rival companies for five years. EnBW will also sell its 24% stake in the Swiss utility Watt in order to maintain competition in the Swiss market.
EdF is considering opening all of its nuclear contracts to competition, including reprocessing of spent fuel, reactor maintenance and atomic fuel supply, and are currently discussing possible contracts with British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). Cogema has up until now been the sole suppler or reprocessing services to EdF.
