Areva dropped from Finnish reactor project. Another blow for EPR

French nuclear group Areva's exclusion from a Finnish nuclear tender is another blow to the reputation of its EPR reactor and raises questions about France's ambitious nuclear export plans.

Finnish nuclear consortium Fennovoima said on Monday it had selected Toshiba as sole candidate to build a large nuclear reactor, dropping Areva. Areva has not sold a reactor anywhere in the world since 2007. The EPR is stalling globally. Just weeks ago British utility Centrica pulled out of plans to build EPRs in Britain with French utility EDF , and in December Italy's Enel pulled out from the construction of an EPR in Flamanville, northern France. Areva CEO Luc Oursel says he still aims to sell 10 EPRs by the end of 2016, but doubts are growing.

No surprise, Vogtle nuclear expansion already over budget and behind schedule

Georgia Power's plan to expand the Vogtle nuclear power plant will take more than a year-and-a-half longer than expected and will cost about $740 million more than originally proposed.

The utility will pay more of the $14 billion projected cost because of increased capital costs and additional financing. Customers will be paying for their part of the expansion costs longer.

Customer fees will rise from $3.88 in 2011 to $5.11 and will continue to grow until the plant produces electricity, sometime around 2017 or 2018.

Areva loses a bundle in 2012

France's state-controlled nuclear engineering giant Areva lost $130 million in 2012 and its business is struggling to move past the Japan's nuclear disaster and a troubled mining venture. The company lost (EURO)2.5 billion in 2011, a year that saw many countries rethink their use of the nuclear energy after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the Fukushima power plant. Much of those losses were due to a troubled uranium mining venture that was the subject of investigation.

Namibia uranium mine cutting workers as demand drops

The world's third largest uranium mine - Roessing in Namibia - is cutting its work force, eliminating 276 of the 1,592 jobs. The cuts are in response to low prices and reduced demand, in some part a response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Even IAEA has to admit - nuclear in decline

Excerpt from "Nuclear policy responses to Fukushima: Exit, voice, and loyalty. By M.V. Ramana, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. "Two years after the multiple accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi reactors, the future of nuclear power is no longer what it used to be. Independent analysts argue that the global nuclear industry is in decline and that the nuclear share of the worldÕs electricity production can only go down (Schneider and Froggatt, 2012). Even projections by agencies involved in promoting nuclear power, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reflect, however inadequately, the decline in nuclear powerÕs prospects. In 2010, for example, the IAEA projected that nuclear power would have a generating capacity of 546 to 803 gigawatts by 2030 (IAEA, 2010). Only two years later, the IAEAÕs lower projection had dropped by a whopping 90 gigawatts, to 456 gigawatts, and the upper projec- tion had come down by 63 gigawatts to 740 gigawatts (IAEA, 2012). " And check out the current Bulletin for a whole collection of articles on nuclear power.