Europe's New-Generation Nuclear Plants Stagger Over The Start Line

Years late and massively over-budget, Europe’s first EPR nuclear plants in Finland and France are on the verge of “energizing”, as the sector jargon goes…

Barring last-minute glitches, this will be the final act in what must be the longest-running construction saga in the region.

Finland’s 1993 vote to reject plans for a fifth reactor was one of the first stories I covered as a trainee.

Readers of Power in Europe were already bored witless by all the back-and-forth on the topic when, in 2002, the government changed its mind and the project was waved through.

It was another six years before construction of the new-generation, pressurized water reactor began.

Now, ten years late and two-and-a-half times over budget, TVO’s Olkiluoto-3 EPR is set to spark up in 2019 ahead of full operation in 2020.

Meanwhile a mere eight years late and, at Eur10.5 billion, three times over budget, EDF’s Flamanville 3 EPR in Normandy, northern France is also due to deliver first power in summer 2019.

Even when complete, there is a cloud hanging over this project due to “anomalies” found in its reactor pressure vessel head, potentially requiring replacement within a few short years. Not a great start to a 60-year operational life.

For Finland, commissioning of O-3 will go a long way to erasing the country’s multi-year electricity supply deficit, freeing up Norwegian and Swedish hydro resource. For France, operational scrutiny will be intense as EDF seeks to prove the design and build a case for further units.

However late, these baseload behemoths are going to be welcome additions to Europe’s volatile power markets.

For the year just passed, over 15 GW of conventional thermal plant closed across Europe, offset by just 3 GW of gas plant adds. Meanwhile 24 GW of wind and solar were installed.

Hefty net closures in recent years mean that Italy, Finland, Hungary and Lithuania go into 2019 reliant on imports.

Under harsh winter conditions Austria, Belgium, Slovakia and Slovenia are equally dependent.

This is ahead of a slew of more determined energy transition actions by European governments, phasing out big chunks of coal and nuclear plant in the early to mid-2020s.

Platts Analytics sees 65 GW of net coal and nuclear closures over next seven years, nearly double the level of closures seen over the last seven years.

The coal closures are front-loaded in the period, with heavy losses across Germany, the UK and Spain before end-2020, ahead of total phase-outs in France (2022), the UK (2025) and the Netherlands (2030).

Nuclear reductions start to hit home with 10 GW of German capacity closed by 2022, followed by removal of 6 GW of Belgian capacity by 2025, and the loss of 4.3 GW in the UK between 2024-2026.

So it’s better late than never for these EPRs. EDF will be keeping everything crossed, meanwhile, that Hinkley Point C offers less drama as it sets out on its own construction journey. Let’s hope some cub reporter is not still writing about it in 2029

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-19/europes-new-generation-nuclear-plants-stagger-over-start-line

France presses Japan to accept Renault-Nissan merger

The French government has asked Japan to accept a possible merger between Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. following the arrest of Carlos Ghosn, who had managed the alliance of the carmakers, sources close to the matter said Sunday.

The request, apparently aimed at bringing the two automakers under the wing of a new holding company, was made at talks between French and Japanese officials in Tokyo, and reflects French President Emmanuel Macron’s wishes, the sources said.

A delegation including Martin Vial, a Renault director designated by the French government, visited Japanese officials to discuss the plans.

The French government is the biggest stakeholder in Renault.

Macron last month held talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in which they only agreed to ensure a stable relationship within the three-way alliance, which also involves Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

Nissan is widely seen as wanting to reduce the influence of the French partner on its management and review the alliance with the aim of making it more equitable.

To preserve its business identity, by cooperating with the Japanese government Nissan will speed up formulating measures to prevent itself from being integrated with Renault, the sources said.

In 2015, the French government agreed with Nissan and Renault that it would not interfere in the Japanese automaker’s management, but it remains to be seen whether this agreement will hold true.

Ghosn was arrested in November and has been indicted for allegedly underreporting his compensation in Nissan’s financial statements, among other charges.

Nissan, which brought the allegations to prosecutors following a whistleblower tip, has ousted Ghosn as chairman, while saying it did not have enough checks on his power during his two-decade reign.

Renault is expected to put a new leader in place this week by replacing Ghosn as chairman and CEO, since he has been denied bail in Japan. Ghosn has denied all allegations against him.

Two months after Ghosn’s arrest, the Japanese carmaker is weighing abolishing the chairman role as it steps up reforms to rebuild its governance. The scandal has also strained the company’s partnership with Renault, a union held together by Ghosn for two decades.

Ghosn was reportedly planning a merger between the two carmakers before his arrest.

Tension has been rising between Nissan and Renault over their respective powers within each other’s boardrooms. Through complicated cross shareholdings, Renault owns 43 percent of Nissan, which in turn owns 15 percent of the French automaker.

Last month, Renault said it planned to name a new director to the board of Nissan and safeguard power within their alliance.

“Renault wants to exercise the possibility to name its directors and this will be done at a shareholders’ meeting,” Vial, who is also head of the agency that holds the French government’s stake, said in an interview on BFM Business.

Earlier, Nissan Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa rebuffed the French carmaker’s demand for a meeting of all shareholders to discuss Nissan’s governance, something it would need to do to change its board representation.

rest at link

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/01/20/business/corporate-business/france-presses-japan-accept-renault-nissan-merger/

posted yesterday a small article on this but was right before POTUS speech so lost in the shuffle.

Not 'partners': Shinzo Abe and Vladimir Putin on collision course over islands at summit talks in Moscow

AFP-JIJI

The leaders of Japan and Russia will hold crunch summit talks in Moscow on Tuesday, with the two countries locked in an undiplomatic war of words over disputed islands claimed by both.

Simmering tension between Moscow and Tokyo over the islands off the northern coast of Hokkaido, known as the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, has ramped up in recent weeks, with Russia angrily accusing Japan of whipping up tension ahead of the summit and failing to accept it lost World War II.

Setting the tone for the talks, a foreign policy advisor for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Yuri Ushakov, admitted the meeting would “not be easy.”

The then-Soviet Union seized the four islands in the closing days of World War II. The dispute over their sovereignty has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty — a situation both nations have vowed to rectify.

During a New Year’s address, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sparked outrage in Moscow when he spoke of the need to help Russian residents on the disputed islands “accept and understand that the sovereignty of their homes will change.”

A furious Russia summoned the Japanese ambassador to complain that Abe’s statements were an “attempt to artificially stir up the atmosphere” over the issue of a possible peace treaty.

Moscow also fumed Japan was trying to “disorientate” the public and that the Japanese leader’s statements “flagrantly distort the essence of the agreements” reached by Putin and Abe in Singapore in November, where they vowed to accelerate efforts toward peace.

Talks lasting several hours between the foreign ministers of the two countries Monday failed to improve the situation, with Taro Kono and Sergei Lavrov not even appearing together for a joint news conference.

And at his own New Year’s news conference, Lavrov said the two countries were “still far from being partners in international relations.”

“Why is Japan the only country in the world that cannot accept the results of World War II in their entirety?” he asked.

He also lashed out at the pro-Western bias of Japan — the key U.S. ally in the region.

“Japan votes not with us but against us on all the resolutions that interest Russia in the U.N.,” Moscow’s top diplomat said.

Putin aide Ushakov was clear that the sovereignty of the islands was not up for negotiation.

Russia owns the islands legally “according to the results of World War II” and has no plans to hand them over to Tokyo, he said.

“This is our land, and nobody is going to give this land to anybody.”

Tensions between the pair have been stoked by actions as well as words.

In December, Russia said it had built four new military barracks on the islands as it ramps up “military and social infrastructure” there.

Moscow has already deployed missile systems on the islands, sparking protests from Japan.

James Brown, an expert on Japan-Russia relations at Temple University in Tokyo, predicted Putin would take a softer tone than Lavrov but admitted prospects for the talks were “not promising.”

“Whether they can make some real progress is really questionable because the Russian position is very, very clear: They have said so many times now that Japan must recognize Russian sovereignty over the four islands as a result of World War II,” said Brown.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/01/20/national/politics-diplomacy/not-partners-shinzo-abe-vladimir-putin-collision-course-islands-summit-talks-moscow/

>>4833178

peace for you and your's sa

>>4833286

>>4833270

>>4833340

KANSAS?

>>4833427

NYC's Housing-Market Weakness Spreads From Manhattan To The Outer Boroughs

Throughout vast swaths of New York City, members of the city's vast middle class work force can barely afford even a modest apartment. Yet for years after the post-crisis housing market recovery began, that reality did little to slow down the rise in home valuations as foreign capital and rock bottom interest rates fueled a buying frenzy, pushing rents ever-higher. But after citywide rents peaked in 2014, the NYC housing market, particularly the most expensive areas of Manhattan, has started to soften.

But whereas only a few quarters ago that weakness was largely confined to the top tiers of the city's housing market, the pressure on sellers to lower their asks has swiftly spread. Now, in almost every neighborhood in Manhattan and in nearly every one of Brooklyn's trendiest neighborhoods, more than one-fifth of sellers have been forced to lower their asks - sometimes substantially so - as mortgage rates rise and global growth begins to slow.

rest at link

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-18/home-prices-are-falling-across-nyc-mortgage-rates-rise