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Areva of France and Toshiba of Japan will learn in the next six months which has won the competition to work on one of the biggest nuclear projects, worth up to ￡20bn ($32.4bn).

German energy groups RWE and Eon expect to decide in the spring whether to choose French or US-Japanese technology to build from four to six reactors in the UK, which is planning the biggest expansion of nuclear power in Europe.

Jürgen Grossmann, RWE chief executive, told the FT the two companies were weighing the competing offers. “We want to build the most economical reactor, in the best interest of our customers, and it’s not only the initial investment, ie the purchase price from the manufacturer. It’s the operating costs, with spare parts and all that. So it’s a complex decision.”

Horizon Nuclear Power, the RWE/Eon joint venture, plans to build about 6,000 megawatts of nuclear generation on two sites, one at Wylfa in north-west Wales and one at Oldbury in south-west England, for a total investment of ￡15bn-￡20bn.

The contract appeals because many nuclear projects in other countries are looking shaky as a result of political opposition or financial snags.

In the US, there are proposals for 30 reactors, but industry executives say at most a handful will start construction in the next few years.

The UK government has made a strong commitment to new nuclear plants to safeguard power supplies and cut carbon dioxide emissions, and the Conservative party is expected to take a similar view should it win next year’s election.

Two reactors are being assessed for approval by UK regulators: Areva’s EPR, a design under construction in Finland and France; and the AP1,000 from Westinghouse, Toshiba’s nuclear engineering subsidiary.

Horizon expects to decide in the spring whether to choose the EPR or the AP1,000, or a mixture of the two. It is looking to take a final investment decision on the project in 2013.

Mr Grossman said using both reactors might offer the best deal, but “a lot can be said for going for one technology, which means you have one training ground [and] a crew that can operate various plants”.

The UK government had favoured using more than one technology, but industry executives believe it has dropped that aspiration.

EDF of France, the other leading company planning nuclear investment in the UK, is committed to the EPR.

Robert Davies, Areva’s UK new-build director, said: “We are in close discussions with Horizon Nuclear Power and look forward to a decision in 2010.”

Westinghouse said it was “planning for success” and working to build a supply chain in the UK.

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Texas-based computer giant Dell has reorganized and added a new mobile device division to their company. This comes only after a month since Dell announced they would make phones and their early showing with the Dell Mini 3i. Dell joins other computer manufacturers Apple, Acer, Lenovo, among others, in the mobile phone space.

Dell’s new mobile phone division will be run by one Ron Garriques, a former Motorola boss who was leading Dell’s consumer computer division. When Garriques was brought to Dell (reportedly personally by Michael Dell) in 2007, it spurred rumors that Dell would reattempt something in the mobile product line.

Dell’s PDA line, Axim, was produced from 2002 to 2007, but sold poorly in the ‘BlackBerry era’ of smartphones with well designed e-mail and other business features. Dell’s Mini 3i is their first phone attempt, although it is only going to be sold (at first) in China and Brazil. Dell said that in addition to phones, Dell will also produce MIDs (mobile internet devices) and possibly a tablet.

Dell was formerly #1 in worldwide computer sales, but has slipped to #2 behind Taiwan’s Acer. Some sources report Dell has fallen even further to #3. With the worldwide recession, both home and enterprise computer sales are down, affecting the revenue of Dell.
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Having rather unwisely offloaded its mobile phone division to investors for $100m in January 2008, Lenovo has spotted that it was a mistake of rather epic proportions and bought it back – for $200m. So that’s a wrap on the knuckles and a $100m penalty for being daft.

“As Lenovo’s global PC business continues to make steady progress, we view mobile Internet as a key growth opportunity moving forward globally,” said Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing while rather ignoring the question everyone has on their lips.

Let’s ask it: WHY sell off the business in the first place? Actually, there is some logic. Lenovo was short on cash at the time and needed the money so when investors offered $100m to take the then-unprofitable arm off its hands it seemed like a good move. Since then Lenovo’s PC business has improved and at the same time those crafty investors have transformed Lenovo mobile into a profitable business that is now ranked number three in China’s handset market and is the number one domestic brand! Consequently Lenovo felt ready to splash out again, especially when it admits:

“Industry analysts project the China mobile Internet market will grow to exceed US$16 billion by 2014, fueled [sic] by the rapid evolution of 3G mobile broadband and accompanying multimedia Internet services.”
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