PARIS\u00a0\u2013 French shipbuilder DCNS\u00a0is leaving a program to build the a nuclear civil research reactor and will focus on its capabilities in atomic propulsion, a spokesman said Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state-owned naval company and the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission have reached a “friendly agreement” on ending a contract on the Jules Horowitz Reactor, the spokesman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DCNS suffered a loss last year of some \u20ac100 million (US\u00a0$112 million)\u00a0due in its work on the reactor, website Latribune reported.\u00a0That loss stems from the cost overrun on building the atomic plant, which could reach up to \u20ac1.5 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This friendly agreement guarantees the operational continuity of the JHR program,” said the spokesman, who declined to comment on the loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CEA on its website estimates the building cost at some \u20ac750 million. Construction on the Jules Horowitz Reactor is due to finish this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DCNS staff will continue working on the plant, in Cadarache, southern France, until June 30. The staff are working on fluid circuits, ventilation and air conditioning on the reactor, which is being built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The agreement allows CEA to secure its plans and costs of the program and for DCNS to refocus on the core naval activities,” the spokesman said. “The target is to maintain capabilities in the nuclear propulsion area.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The naval company is building six Barracuda nuclear-powered attack submarines and has built four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines in the Triomphant class. DCNS expects to break even in 2015 after posting a 2014 net loss of \u20ac336 million, with annual sales more than \u20ac3 billion. The company reported \u20ac3.1 billion in sales in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Jules Horowitz Reactor is designed for material testing to develop and qualify materials and nuclear fuels, and to develop\u00a0future reactors. CEA is the French partner in the 11-strong international consortium backing the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
French shipbuilder DCNS is leaving a program to build the a nuclear civil research reactor and will focus on its capabilities in atomic propulsion, a spokesman said Feb. 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":59255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[33,16],"tags":[],"coauthors":[464],"class_list":["post-27119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-naval"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"XFA6C3ZIYRDIBAI4BTN4D5IYNI","arc_canonical_url":"\/naval\/2016\/02\/04\/french-shipbuilder-dcns-leaves-civil-nuclear-program\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n