Areva wants to raid Fr. nuke decommissioning funds to pay for UK reactors
They can't afford to borrow money on the market because they have credit rating that's in the toilet.
Areva may use French fund to help pay for UK nuclear plant - paper
PARIS Mon Dec 16, 2013 12:48pm GMT
(Reuters) - Areva is in talks with the French government to release some funds set aside for dismantling its nuclear installations in France to help the company finance a new British nuclear reactor, a newspaper reported.
Britain signed a deal with France's state-owned utility EDF in October to build a 16-billion pound nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in southwest Britain, the first new plant in Europe since the Fukushima disaster.
State-owned Areva is taking a 10 percent stake in the consortium that will build the facility, which also includes EDF's Chinese partners China General Nuclear Corporation (CGN) and China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).
Areva wants to ensure the British nuclear project will not impact its debt, which is rated BBB- by Standard and Poors, one notch above "junk" territory. Its debt-to-equity ratio stood at 1.15 at the end of June, according to Thomson Reuters data.
It will need 500 million pounds to finance its share ...
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/16/uk-areva-hinkleypoint-funds-idUKBRE9BF0KS20131216