Areva SA, the world's largest builder of nuclear reactors, said talks to build a plant in Libya are at a “diplomatic'' stage and aren't yet commercial or industrial.
“This is the time for diplomats to talk, not for industrial or commercial discussions,'' Julien Duperray, spokesman for Paris-based Areva, said by telephone.
He declined to confirm a report in today's Le Parisien newspaper that executives made presentations on nuclear reactors in Libya in June, including for the latest and largest model, the European Pressurized Reactor, or EPR.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy denied today that France planned to sell an EPR to Libya, Agence France-Presse reported. Sarkozy was speaking in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, where he is on vacation.
Libya's bid to acquire a nuclear reactor puts it among a growing group of North African countries looking to invest in atomic power, including Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Libyan nuclear scientists have shown an interest in acquiring an EPR, Xavier Clement, a spokesman for France's nuclear agency, or CEA, said by telephone. The CEA owns 80 percent of Areva.
“Within the framework of a research agreement we have with Libya, their scientists have shown an interest in the EPR,'' Clement said. “Our job under the agreement is to help them figure out what they need. It will then be up to them to choose the model.''
Desalination Plant
Sarkozy and Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi signed a separate agreement last month in Tripoli to build a nuclear reactor to power a desalination plant. The two countries also agreed to cooperate on a search for uranium in Libya.
Under the accord between Libya and the CEA, signed in March 2006, the French agency has begun training Libyan researchers at a nuclear site in Cadarache in southern France, Clement said. The deal also calls for cooperation on the use of radio-isotopes for medical and industrial purposes.
Libya isn't the only country interested in powering a desalination plant using a nuclear reactor. The CEA has research agreements with Morocco and Tunisia to study similar projects, Clement said.
On a trip to Algeria in July, Sarkozy said the two countries will forge closer links on civil nuclear cooperation to prepare the North African country for the “post-oil'' era.
