Areva's troubled new-generation nuclear reactor programme - EPR - looks set to receive a needed boost from China. The French state controlled company lost out to Westinghouse at the end of last year in the contest to supply the first tranche of China's new nuclear power plants.

Coupled with difficulties in Finland, where Areva and its German partner Siemens are struggling to build the first third-generation EPR nuclear power plant, the Chinese defeat was a blow to the French company's confidence and international image as the world's leading nuclear group.