Sarkozy plans major shake-up in French nuclear industry

Mar 11, 2010, 22:40 GMT

Paris - President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to shake up the French publicly operated nuclear industry in April to quell the open, bitter rivalry between the heads of two nuclear agencies.

'The state will bring order into this situation,' Sarkozy told the newspaper Figaro Magazine on Friday.

He said the public bickering was unacceptable between the two figures: Anne Lauvergeon, who heads the Areva organization that builds nuclear power plants, and Henri Proglio, head of the energy giant EDF that operates the plants.

'The industry must be organized so that French enterprises are not competing with each other,' Sarkozy said.

The latest flare-up came after the loss of a 20-billion-dollar contract for a nuclear plant that France expected to receive from Abu Dhabi. Instead, the contract went to a Korean consortium.

Sarkozy said he will announce decisions about the future of the French nuclear industry after the submission of a report by experts.

France is one of the leading nuclear power users in the world.