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French energy giant EDF's UK subsidiary EDF Energy would not comment Wednesday on press reports that no deal would be reached with UK's Centrica over ownership of nuclear generator British Energy until after the European Commission ratified the French company's takeover bid. State-controlled EDF's Eur15.6 billion ($22 billion) takeover of British Energy was agreed September 24 by the boards of EDF and British Energy and is subject to UK and EC regulatory approval.

French Energy company EDF has won permission from the European Union competition authorities to buy British Energy, subject to certain conditions. EDF has to sell one plant it owns and one that British Energy (BE) owns, and sell a minimum amount of electricity to the British wholesale market. It also has to end a connection agreement with the National Grid.

French energy firm EDF is expected to announce a £12.4bn deal to buy British Energy, the firm which operates the UK's eight nuclear power plants. In addition, Centrica, which owns British Gas, will take 25% of all power generated by British Energy once it is in French hands, the BBC has learnt.

"Ministers rely too much on EDF's nuclear plans to plug energy gap, report warns The Government's sale of British Energy to France's EDF was a good price but a bad deal, an influential committee of MPs will conclude this morning. The state received £4.4bn for its 36 per cent stake of the nuclear operator - out of a total £12.5bn price tag - thanks to peak energy prices at the time of the contract, says the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). But the deal has done little to address the danger of energy shortages from 2016 as demand rises and obsolete power stations are retired."

"The Obama administration's decision to cancel plans for a massive nuclear waste facility at Nevada's Yucca Mountain may have complicated hopes for a nuclear energy renaissance in the United States. But a handful of Am Law 100 firms with strong nuclear regulatory practices are betting that the search for clean energy sources and the debate over climate change will lead more countries to embrace the nuclear option. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius sought to give its leading nuclear regulatory practice a boost last week with the addition in London of Susan Quint, a former general counsel and group legal director for British Nuclear Fuels Limited. Legal Week reports that the move by Morgan Lewis follows a shift by the firm to refocus its practice strengths abroad, especially in the energy sector. London-based EDF Energy recently selected the Morgan Lewis to help it build 20 new nuclear reactors in the U.K., The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. (EDF is a subsidiary of Paris-based Électricité de France, the world's largest utility company following its $23 billion merger with British Energy in September 2008.) And Morgan Lewis isn't the only firm looking to other shores for nuclear business."

Centrica, Britain's biggest gas and electricity supplier, is to sound out institutional shareholders about reviving plans for a £22.5bn all-share merger with British Energy, The Sunday Telegraph has learned. Centrica, which owns British Gas, will gauge the appetite of City investors for a paper deal following the last-minute hitch in British Energy's takeover by EDF, the French government-controlled energy group, last week.

"Paul Spence says the nuclear industry expects to pay the full cost of decommissioning a new generation of nuclear power stations (Response, 15 June). But his words about "our full share of waste management and disposal costs" were carefully chosen. The consultation document reveals that EDF considers their full share of these costs to be around 20% of the total. As our report Nuclear Power? No Point! highlighted last year, nuclear is only responsible for 4% of the energy consumed in the UK. More energy can be saved by energy conservation measures in homes and businesses. Focusing on the nuclear industry takes resources away from building new renewable capacity, which, given sufficient political will, could provide more than enough electricity for the UK. Darren Johnson Green party spokesperson on Trade and Industry * EDF's claim that they "have not asked for subsidy for new nuclear" is not all that it seems. The nuclear industry, owned by British Energy (in turn owned by EDF), will be receiving huge sums of windfall profits under government proposals for a floor price on carbon emission allowances. British Energy will greatly expand its profits for no increase in nuclear power production, all subsidised by electricity consumers."

Centrica (CNA.L) is not interested in taking a larger stake in four new nuclear plants to be built by France's EDF (EDF.PA), The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday citing sources. EDF, which already owns eight nuclear power stations in the UK after its acquisition of British Energy last year, confirmed over the weekend that it may sell a 20 percent stake worth at least 3 billion pounds ($4.78 billion) in two reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset and two at Sizewell in Suffolk, the Telegraph reported. Centrica, which bought 20 percent of British Energy for 2.3 billion pounds earlier this year, has the right to take up a 20 percent stake in the new nuclear projects, but is understood not to want a bigger share, the paper said.

Centrica (CNA.L) is not interested in taking a larger stake in four new nuclear plants to be built by France's EDF (EDF.PA), The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday citing sources. EDF, which already owns eight nuclear power stations in the UK after its acquisition of British Energy last year, confirmed over the weekend that it may sell a 20 percent stake worth at least 3 billion pounds ($4.78 billion) in two reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset and two at Sizewell in Suffolk, the Telegraph reported. Centrica, which bought 20 percent of British Energy for 2.3 billion pounds earlier this year, has the right to take up a 20 percent stake in the new nuclear projects, but is understood not to want a bigger share, the paper said.

British families could be forced to pay up to £227 extra on their annual energy bills to help to fund a new generation of nuclear power stations under plans proposed by the French company expected to build most of them. EDF Energy, which wants to build four reactors in Britain at a cost of about £20 billion, was accused of holding the Government to ransom last night, after an executive told The Times that none would be built unless the Government agreed to underwrite part of the cost. Speaking before a government announcement on Britain's energy future on Monday, Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, managing director of EDF Energy's new nuclear business in Britain, said the nuclear programme would proceed only if the Government ensured that consumers paid more for electricity from fossil fuels, such as coal and gas, which is cheaper but produces more greenhouse gas, making nuclear more competitive.

British families could be forced to pay up to £227 extra on their annual energy bills to help to fund a new generation of nuclear power stations under plans proposed by the French company expected to build most of them. EDF Energy, which wants to build four reactors in Britain at a cost of about £20 billion, was accused of holding the Government to ransom last night, after an executive told The Times that none would be built unless the Government agreed to underwrite part of the cost. Speaking before a government announcement on Britain's energy future on Monday, Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, managing director of EDF Energy's new nuclear business in Britain, said the nuclear programme would proceed only if the Government ensured that consumers paid more for electricity from fossil fuels, such as coal and gas, which is cheaper but produces more greenhouse gas, making nuclear more competitive.

The grand plan for nuclear power in the UK has come to a grinding halt with EDF's decision to abandon buying British Energy It's not often that the blocking of a single deal brings a whole area of national policy to a grinding halt. Yet that is what has happened with the failed (for the moment) auction of British Energy (BE), our sole nuclear-power provider. When its sale to EDF, the French utility group, was halted on Thursday, government energy policy was derailed at the same moment.

LONDON (AFP) - Nuclear power operator British Energy said Monday that a series of takeover proposals it had received from unnamed parties undervalues the company. British Energy announced on May 16 that it had received several offers from parties interested in the company as Britain prepares major new atomic energy investment.

British Gas owner Centrica and France's state-owned EDF announced on Monday a long-awaited joint venture aimed at relaunching nuclear energy in Britain. EDF, the world's biggest nuclear energy producer, also said it would buy 51 percent of the Belgian electricity company SPE from Centrica for 1.3 billion euros (1.16 billion pounds), the companies said in a joint statement. The deal with Centrica will enable the leading British generator "to take part in the re-launch of nuclear energy in the United Kingdom," said Pierre Gadonneix, chairman and chief executive of EDF.

In 2003, the nuclear industry was very nearly killed off in Britain. In 2009, it is so resurgent that captains of the energy industry are arguing it is renewables that should be killed off, or at least kept on a starvation diet. Today, the Confederation of British Industry has thrown its weight behind the nuclear industry's calls for the government to scale back "overambitious" wind power targets in favour of atomic energy. Two foreign-owned energy giants, E.ON and EDF, have recently told the government it must essentially choose between new nuclear and major renewables developments. With global warming, energy security and fuel poverty all rendering energy policy a matter of life and death today, in their own ways, this new polarisation in the nuclear debate is a desperately dangerous development.

Britain continues to favour a tie-up between British Energy and French energy group EDF, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said in an interview published Monday. Speaking to the Financial Times last week while on a visit to Lagos, Wicks said a deal with EDF was "the most sensible option" and added that the government thought "that's the natural link".

A multinational consortium of energy companies is paying £70m for land adjacent to Sellafield suitable for building a new atomic power station. Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE), Spain's Iberdrola and France's GDF Suez have acquired the 470-acre site, which is the fourth piece of land to be sold by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The consortium plans to build an installation with a capacity of up to 3.6 gigawatts, starting in 2015. The SSE/Iberdrola/GDF group is the third new entrant to the UK nuclear industry after France's EDF bought British Energy for £12.5bn in January, and a consortium of Germany's RWE Npower and E.ON was successful in earlier NDA land auctions in April. SSE/Iberdrola/GDF was also a bidder in previous auctions for land at Wylfa, Oldbury and Bradwell. But the group pulled out after competition became so fierce it ran for six weeks rather than the expected one, and netted the Government a whopping £387m rather than the expected £100m.

A multinational consortium of energy companies is paying £70m for land adjacent to Sellafield suitable for building a new atomic power station. Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE), Spain's Iberdrola and France's GDF Suez have acquired the 470-acre site, which is the fourth piece of land to be sold by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). The consortium plans to build an installation with a capacity of up to 3.6 gigawatts, starting in 2015. The SSE/Iberdrola/GDF group is the third new entrant to the UK nuclear industry after France's EDF bought British Energy for £12.5bn in January, and a consortium of Germany's RWE Npower and E.ON was successful in earlier NDA land auctions in April. SSE/Iberdrola/GDF was also a bidder in previous auctions for land at Wylfa, Oldbury and Bradwell. But the group pulled out after competition became so fierce it ran for six weeks rather than the expected one, and netted the Government a whopping £387m rather than the expected £100m.

Environmental activists yesterday took David Miliband to task over Britain's renewable energy resources and his support for nuclear power. The Foreign Secretary faced searching questions from the British Council's Scottish young climate change champions at the organisation's office in Edinburgh, as well as from their Japanese equivalents, who joined the debate via a video link. Ahead of the Copenhagen talks, they questioned Mr Miliband over energy mixes, the viability of a profitable low carbon economy and the ability of the EU member states to work together on the issue.

Environmental activists yesterday took David Miliband to task over Britain's renewable energy resources and his support for nuclear power. The Foreign Secretary faced searching questions from the British Council's Scottish young climate change champions at the organisation's office in Edinburgh, as well as from their Japanese equivalents, who joined the debate via a video link. Ahead of the Copenhagen talks, they questioned Mr Miliband over energy mixes, the viability of a profitable low carbon economy and the ability of the EU member states to work together on the issue.

""By promising to fund any extra costs in decommissioning, Labour is gambling taxpayers' money for energy firms who won't pick up the tab," said the Liberal Democrat Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary. Commenting on today's report by the Comptroller and Auditor General into the sale of the Government's interest in British Energy, Simon Hughes said: "This report shows the Government's blindness to the clean-up costs of nuclear power in its headlong rush to build new plants. "By promising to fund any extra costs in decommissioning, Labour is gambling taxpayers' money for energy firms who won't pick up the tab. "The Government's promises to build new nuclear power stations without public subsidy are virtually worthless when it's already writing blank cheques to private energy firms." "

French electricity giant EDF said on Monday it now holds nearly 89 percent of nuclear operator British Energy and it will extend its offer to secure the remaining shares until January 5. EDF said that by the scheduled close of its 15.6 billion euro (13.4 billion pound) offer on December 5, it held 88.67 percent of British Energy's shares, including its original stake of 26.48 percent.

EDF is leading the drive to build the next generation of nuclear reactors in Britain According to a report by The Times Online, EDF, the heavily indebted French power group, is close to agreeing a big asset swap with E.ON, its German rival, but it played down reports recently that it was also considering the sale of a 20 percent stake in British Energy, the UK's nuclear generator. EDF, which is leading the drive to build the next generation of nuclear reactors in Britain, has begun a sweeping review of its businesses as it aims to cut its €37 billion (£33.5 billion) debt pile. In May, EDF sold a 20 per cent stake in British Energy, which it bought only a year ago, to Centrica, the British Gas owner, for €2.5 billion. Officials have denied a report in La Tribune that EDF was considering selling a further 20 percent stake in the company to help to fund its plans to build four nuclear reactors in Britain by 2025 however, they did not rule out the possibility.

Plans for Britain's future nuclear supply emerged in sharp focus yesterday after the French power giant EDF unveiled a £12.5bn deal to buy British Energy and build four new reactors in the UK. The state-owned company, already one of the UK's top six energy suppliers, plans to take over British Energy's eight nuclear generators, including Hunterston B and Torness in Scotland, and has identified six potential sites for its new model of water-pressurised reactor south of the border.