John Bohart,
President and CEO,
Framatome Technologies Group
Insight
The rate of utility consolidation continues to amaze nearly everyone I talk to. It seems hardly a week goes by without a new announcement related to a utility merger, or nuclear plant sale. It is an exciting, but challenging time in our industry for utilities and vendors.

Now Framatome is joining the merger movement to help our company address these challenges. Framatome SA, our parent company, has signed an agreement in principle with Siemens that will lead to a merger of both companies' nuclear businesses.The joining of the nuclear entities of Framatome and Siemens is a logical extension of their joint development of the advanced pressurized water reactor, the EPR ( see aticle on Framatome-Siemens merger).

The joining of the Framatome and Siemens nuclear businesses will provide significant advantages in serving the worldwide electric utility markets. Here in the U.S., the ability to offer both PWR and BWR fuel will provide our customers with additional choices, enhanced technology and reliable performance. The merger will also allow us to provide broader service offerings for both PWR and BWR plants.

I believe the synergies provided by this consolidation and our enhanced ability to better serve our customers are particularly important during this critical period of industry deregulation. These synergies will allow us to jointly develop the technologies to meet your future needs.

We will also continue to work with our customers to provide a broader array of services and innovative partnering arrangements. We are proposing more synergistic relationships, including creating value-added working arrangements where we increasingly share risks and rewards with you. Our goal is to cultivate a relationship in which we work together in new ways to assure your plants operate competitively for the long term, including license extension.

The merger movement has now included Framatome. Our reasons for merging are simply to provide you with better services to meet your needs.

This changing face of ownership for utilities and vendors requires that we all be quick on our feet, and work together in ways that provide mutual strategic advantage. We look forward to continuing to help your company achieve its strategic goals.