Electricite de France, Europe's biggest power generator, hopes to build its first nuclear plant in the United States in 2015, the chief executive of the French state-owned company said Monday.
"We envision the date of 2015," Pierre Gadonneix told AFP on the sidelines of an energy conference in Madrid, adding the firm had already selected three sites in the United States where it plans to build four nuclear power plants.
Gadonneix did not identify where the nuclear power plants would be located but said the process of getting authorization to build them was already underway.
EDF, which operates 58 nuclear power plants in France, has said it wants to become a world leader in the development of nuclear power projects.
Last year EDF and Baltimore-based Constellation Energy agreed to work together to develop advanced nuclear reactors in the United States.
In July the two firms said they would form a joint venture to develop nuclear power plants in the United States and Canada where there is renewed interest in nuclear power.
As part of the deal EDF plans to purchase up to 9.9 percent of Constellation Energy during the next five years.
Constellation and EDF will each own a 50 percent interest in a new holding company, UniStar Nuclear Energy.
No new nuclear power plants have been developed in the United States since the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident in Pennsylvania in 1979.
But US President George W. Bush has hailed nuclear power as a key to ending American dependence on foreign oil.
France derives over 75 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy.
