French tycoon Louis bets global warming will spur N-comeback

Bloomberg

French tycoon Dominique Louis is doubling down on atomic power, betting that global warming will foster a nuclear renaissance. Three months ago, his nuclear engineering group Assystem SA sold 61 percent of its automotive and aircraft business for 400 million euros ($472 million). Louis used the proceeds to buy back some of the company’s shares and acquire 5 percent of French nuclear reactor maker Areva NP for 125 million euros.
While France is cutting its nuclear dependence, the Assystem chairman and chief executive officer believes atomic energy will be back in vogue as the cost of climate change mounts. Louis expects Electricite de France SA to build 20 to 30 new reactors to partially replace its aging fleet as intermittent supply and local opposition to wind farms limits renewable capacity.
“My bet is that we’re going to start having climate accidents, and that public opinion will turn around very quickly,” Louis, who controls 61 percent of Assystem, said in an Nov. 29 interview at his Paris office.
Doubts about the future of nuclear power in France have proliferated in recent years. The state was forced to bail out Areva’s near-bankrupt parent company after delays and cost overruns at a nuclear plant it’s building in Finland, and as demand slumped following the 2011 Fukushima catastrophe in Japan. The government has a stated goal of reducing atomic power to 50 percent of France’s electricity output by as early as 2030 from 72 percent last year.