She’s known as “Anne Atomique” and the Financial Times lists her as the world’s second-most fashionable business person. Would you expect anything else from the French?
But don’t be fooled by the chic exterior. Not yet 50, Anne Lauvergeon’s meteoric rise to the top of the nuclear industry has been made possible by a tough-as-nails, straight-talking approach to government and investors alike. Lauvergeon is rated the most powerful woman in France, the second-most powerful woman in Europe and the eighth-most powerful in the world, according to Forbes magazine. That’s because she’s head of what may be the world’s leading nuclear company, Areva, which she created.
South Africa’s Eskom is set to begin negotiations for a new nuclear plant later this year, and Areva will be one of the potential vendors. However, there are indications that if we want a reactor, we’ll have to get in line. Areva is building a reactor in Finland, will be building another in France and is also competing for an order from China for four reactors. Lauvergeon’s bet on nuclear seems to be paying off.
She engineered the merger between Cogema, the government-owned nuclear reprocessing company and Framatone, the state-controlled uranium mining and nuclear engineering business, resulting in the formation of Areva, a full-service nuclear shop. As head of Cogema before the merger, she was appointed Areva’s first CEO. The business now boasts 61 000 employees in 41 countries, with $10-billion in sales and is well-positioned to surf a tidal wave of interest in nuclear technology.
The male-dominated nuclear industry may have appeared an odd choice for the career bureaucrat, but Lauvergeon has always been an achiever. She qualified in physics and nuclear engineering at the prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure and spent five years working for then-president Francois Mitterand as a diplomatic “sherpa”. A stint at an investment bank followed, then another with Alcatel. In 1999, she was appointed head of Cogema. She embarked on a public relations offensive, Fortune magazine relates in a 2004 profile, which quotes her as saying “we have to tell the truth, even if sometimes it’s not easy”. Web-cams were installed at La Hague, Cogema’s nuclear processing facility, but were shut down after the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks. She also invited the public to visit the facility.
Areva owes its dominance to history, according to Fortune. France has no major petroleum reserves, but did have scientific and engineering expertise. (After all, it was a Frenchwoman, Marie Curie, who first discovered radiation.) Back in 1974, with the oil crisis in full swing, the government saw nuclear as the way to ensure its energy self- sufficiency. Today, France derives 75% of its electricity from nuclear power, with only Lithuania deriving more. It also has Western Europe’s cheapest retail electricity prices and is the world’s largest net exporter of electricity, according to the magazine. Despite media reports of lingering radiation fears, France has a flawless nuclear safety record.
These days, Areva is positioning itself as a clean energy alternative for governments around the world. Its website boasts that it helps meet “the 21st century’s greatest challenges: making energy available to all, protecting the planet and acting responsibly towards future generations”. Its technology offers carbon dioxide-free power generation, electricity transmission and distribution. “We are the world leader in nuclear power and the only company to cover all industrial activities in this field,” it says. Areva’s new-generation nuclear reactor is able to re-use 95% of spent uranium fuel, further adding to its clean credentials, Fortune reported recently.
As memories of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl dim, and concerns rise over climate change, Middle Eastern instability and the real cost of coal, Areva is actively punting the nuclear route, and governments are taking note. At present, only a few power sources — among them nuclear — are suitable for base load electricity generation. Supporters say that nuclear offers a practical, clean solution to energy needs. Critics respond that the problem of nuclear waste has still not been solved. “It’s very difficult for the green movement to be against climate change and also against nuclear energy,” Lauvergeon told Fortune. “You can’t have a solution to growing global energy demands without nuclear power.”
“Nuclear power is not the only solution, but the majority of the US [United States] population — and the financial community in particular — now understands that there is no solution without it,” she said in a New York address last year. “What our customers want is very simple: to supply electricity to everyone at the lowest cost, without interruption and without increasing CO2 emissions,” she was quoted as saying in France Magazine 76 last year.
New French president Nicolas Sarkozy has twice attempted to lure her into politics, according to the Financial Times. Rumour has it that he’s currently engaged in a third attempt, dangling a ministerial position before her, but it’s hard to see her leaving the company she helped create.