UPDATE 1-EDF sinks to all-time low as nuclear waste cost estimate soars

[bananas]

Source: Reuters

Shares in French utility EDF sank to all-time lows on Tuesday after the country's Andra nuclear waste agency said that storage costs could be higher than EDF's estimates, although EDF disputed Andra's figures.

Mirroring German utilities E.ON and RWE , which saw their shares hit decade lows late last year over worries about nuclear decommissioning costs, shares in EDF fell as much as 7.3 percent before closing down 4.4 percent at 11.96 euros.

A string of brokerage price target downgrades and French forward power prices falling to new decade lows only added to the gloom.

In a report released late on Monday, Andra said costs for the Cigeo deep geological storage project could be as high as 30 billion euros or as low as 20 billion depending on assumptions about different cost factors in coming years.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/edf-nuclear-waste-idUSL8N14W47320160112

[bananas]

1. "This report is clearly negative for all nuclear operators"

The earlier un-updated article has additional information:

http://www.reuters.com/article/edf-nuclear-waste-idUSL8N14W2RO20160112

Tue Jan 12, 2016 9:08am EST
EDF sinks to all-time low as nuclear waste cost estimate soars
PARIS | By Geert De Clercq

<snip>

EDF already needs to borrow money just to pay its dividend and is set to spend tens of billions of euros on upgrading its ageing reactors, building new nuclear plants in Hinkley Point, Britain and buying the reactor arm of Areva.

"This report is clearly negative for all nuclear operators, and most specifically for EDF and Areva," Bryan, Garnier analyst Xavier Caroen said in a note, adding that the risk of a cost revaluation was not new.

EDF shares are down more than 44 percent in the 12 months, the second-worst performer in the Stoxx utilities index after RWE. The company has been replaced in France's CAC-40 index of leading shares by shopping centre operator Klepierre . (Additional reporting by Benjamin Mallet; Editing by Keith Weir)

[kristopher]

2. Has there ever been a time...

...when there was genuine good news out of the nuclear industry? They hype their way forward one step and inevitably fall back 2 steps when the truth of their capabilities catches up with them.


- Not to hijack the thread, but in related news, the saga of Exelon in the US continues. They're having fits as they try to salvage some value from their fleet . The Clean Power Plan didn't help and even coal is dying right alongside them.

They are so close to owning the MidAtlantic region by buying PepCo they can taste it. All they need is DC's approval and even though it was already denied, they are in the middle of getting a second bite at the Commission right now. If they don't get PepCo's customer base via the buyout, I'd expect them to close a number of reactors within maybe 2 years.

Of course, that is the kind of thing that could make a good Congressional bargaining chip so they might get relief from that direction.

[newfie11]

3. Not that I've ever heard or read!