France confirms probe in nuclear power partnership

The French government confirmed a probe into the partnership between French nuclear power group Electricité de France (EDF) and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co (CGNPC) Friday, with the aim of encouraging sustainable nuclear power cooperation between France and China.

France's finance ministry looked into conditions that led EDF to sign a confidential contract with CGNPC, bypassing France's biggest nuclear engineering company Areva, to build nuclear reactors in November 2011, Le Canard Enchaîné newspaper reported Wednesday.

The report claimed EDF had sold some French nuclear power technology and damaged French interests without authorization.

In November this year, EDF signed a second three-way agreement with Areva and CGNPC to design a mid-sized nuclear reactor, said EDF's Executive Vice-President Herve Machenaud.

He said the agreement also strictly regulated protection of French intellectual property.

Machenaud said the partnership with CGNPC and Areva is entirely transparent and has the permission of the French government, Le Canard Enchaîné reported Thursday. Machenaud admitted that EDF had signed the two-party contract with CGNPC last year, but said it was blocked by the French government.

Liu Kaixin, director of the administrative office of CGNPC, was quoted in a report published Wednesday by the Shanghai-based newspaper Oriental Morning Post as saying that CGNPC was finalizing the details of cooperation with EDF, but declined to comment on specifics of the new three-way agreement.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici played down the probe, and was quoted in the Wall Street Journal Saturday as saying that the investigation was not directed at anyone in particular and not seeking to establish that any kind of misdemeanor had been committed.

Moscovici said the probe is necessary to ensure French state interests are respected, describing it as an analysis of procedure and strategy.

EDF and Areva are both French state-controlled companies, and CGNPC is a large State-owned clean energy corporation in China.